Senator Mark Pryor wants our ideas on how to cut federal spending. Take a look at this video clip below:
Senator Pryor has asked us to send our ideas to him at cutspending@pryor.senate.gov and I have done so in the past and will continue to do so in the future.
On May 11, 2011, I emailed to this above address and I got this email back from Senator Pryor’s office:
Please note, this is not a monitored email account. Due to the sheer volume of correspondence I receive, I ask that constituents please contact me via my website with any responses or additional concerns. If you would like a specific reply to your message, please visit http://pryor.senate.gov/contact. This system ensures that I will continue to keep Arkansas First by allowing me to better organize the thousands of emails I get from Arkansans each week and ensuring that I have all the information I need to respond to your particular communication in timely manner. I appreciate you writing. I always welcome your input and suggestions. Please do not hesitate to contact me on any issue of concern to you in the future.
I just did. I went to the Senator’s website and sent this below:
If fully implemented, Obamacare will add trillions of dollars in long-term government spending to a health care system that is already unaffordable. It also increases federal controls and mandates and will impose heavy costs on states, businesses, and households. As noted earlier, the Heritage plan repeals Obamacare and replaces it with the improved, consumer-centered health care system. While this proposal for maintaining sufficient levels of defense spending assumes that future military personnel will be brought under the broader proposals for health care and retirement reform outlined in this report, it also provides for tailored transition options for current military personnel and retirees. Importantly, reforms in compensation and benefits must maintain effective recruitment and retention of, and honor reasonable commitments to, members of the armed forces.
The war on terrorism has increased defense spending to approximately 5
percent of GDP, yet it remains well below the 9 percent spent during in the
1960s and the 6 percent spent during the 1980s. While the Heritage plan
recognizes that predicting precise funding requirements for overseas contingency operations is impossible, it is reasonable to expect that the phasedown in those efforts will permit reducing defense spending to approximately 4 percent of GDP and maintaining it at that level. Ultimately, of course, defense spending will have to be whatever it takes to protect America and its interests around the globe.
Funding an Adequate Defense. The most important core function of the
federal government is ensuring America’s national security, but it needs to be accomplished as economically and efficiently as possible. The Defense Department will focus on identifying and addressing its significant levels of wasteful spending and initiating significant reforms and efficiencies in logistics and acquisition processes so that those funds can be reprioritized into the most important uses to protect America and our allies by maintaining a strong, modern, and effective military.
Making Public Health Service Spending More Efficient. Public health
service spending has grown 56 percent faster than inflation since 2000. While health research is vital, the Heritage plan eliminates waste and inefficiencies that have accumulated. For example, by consolidating redundant facilities and laboratories, the Heritage plan saves the National Institutes of Health $1 billion annually. States take over the financing and operation of health centers, health professions programs, and the substance abuse block grant. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sees savings over $2 billion annually by reducing travel, ending questionable public campaigns, and focusing its role on interstate coordination. Finally, converting Indian Health Service aid into a
premium-support system (where possible) and reforming the Food and Drug Administration save a combined $1 billion annually.
Thus, all Americans will have access to financial aid in attending college,
but it will not be a free ride at the taxpayers’ expense.
However, thanks to a key provision in the Heritage plan’s tax reform, higher education costs are partially defrayed through the simplified and generous tax deduction for higher education tuition. Families whose incomes are too low for them to benefit fully from this tax deduction are eligible for a Pell Grant with a value up to the tax deduction. The direct student loan program is retained with loan limits high enough to guarantee college access but with rates set to ensure that there are no budgetary costs, including the costs associated with deferred repayment until graduation as well as the costs of loan forgiveness programs.
Higher education reforms, including the new deduction for college tuition in the Heritage tax reform, ensure that students receive enough financial
assistance to attend college. Shifting from grants to student loans ensures that most college costs will be financed by the college graduates themselves, who benefit the most from their degrees, and not by other Americans.
Scaling Back K–12 Education Spending and Reforming Higher Education
Spending. Federal spending on K–12 education has grown 192 percent faster than inflation since 2000, yet this sharply increased federal spending and federal micromanagement of school districts has not improved student performance. Under the Heritage plan, total federal K–12 spending is reduced to 2000 levels (adjusted for inflation), in part by eliminating many of the numerous small education programs that Washington uses to micromanage school districts. This will allow states and school districts to manage and meet the needs of their students more effectively.
Kiss singer/bassist Gene Simmons proposed to his longtime girlfriend Shannon Tweed in Belize recently, TMZ reports. The couple has been together 28 years and share two children, 22-year-old son Nicholas and 18-year-old daughter Sophie.
Simmons popped the question on the A&E reality show ‘Gene Simmons Family Jewels,’ which has followed the life of the Simmons brood since 2006. The couple’s relationship has come under duress recently after Simmons joked about his inability to commit to marriage, tweeting “If you never get married you can never get divorced” last month. Tweed also walked out on Simmons in the season’s first episode.
On the show, Tweed was shown flabbergasted, as Mr. Simmons popped the question from bended knee.
__________________________________-
Tonight Gene notes that he has been dating Shannon for 28 years and he knows that he needs to marry her. He knows what it feels to be without her and he never wants to feel that way again. He told her, “I want to apologize for being so selfish.”
In this episode tonight Gene asked Shannon’s mother permission to marry her daughter and she responds, “You are not the best husband material. If you hurt my daughter then you are dead meat!!!”
It is obvious that Gene has been guilty of affairs all during the last 28 years. Will he straighten up and realize what he has in his family and be faithful to his wife?
In the sermon at Fellowship Bible Church at July 24, 2011, teaching pastor Brandon Barnard made a great point about the two choices that you have. You can walk down the pathway of purity or impurity. The pathway of impurity is both persuasive and inviting.
Proverbs 5:3
English Standard Version (ESV)
3For the lips of a forbidden[a] woman drip honey,
and her speech[b] is smoother than oil,
Proverbs 6:24
English Standard Version (ESV)
24to preserve you from the evil woman,[a]
from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.[b]
Proverbs 7:10-20
English Standard Version (ESV)
10And behold, the woman meets him,
dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart.[a] 11She is loud and wayward;
her feet do not stay at home; 12now in the street, now in the market,
and at every corner she lies in wait. 13She seizes him and kisses him,
and with bold face she says to him, 14“I had to offer sacrifices,[b]
and today I have paid my vows; 15so now I have come out to meet you,
to seek you eagerly, and I have found you. 16I have spread my couch with coverings,
colored linens from Egyptian linen; 17I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,
aloes, and cinnamon. 18Come, let us take our fill of love till morning;
let us delight ourselves with love. 19For my husband is not at home;
he has gone on a long journey; 20he took a bag of money with him;
at full moon he will come home.”
___________________________
After his marriage to Shannon will he be faithful? Is Gene Simmons going to continue to have affairs with other women that are evil? However, the Bible calls her an “evil woman.” What kind of future will have with an evil woman that is not your the wife of your youth? Later in chapter 7 Solomon says, “All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast[c] 23till an arrow pierces its liver; as a bird rushes into a snare; he does not know that it will cost him his life.27Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death. ”
Gene Simmons Proposes To Shannon Tweed Kiss singer/bassist Gene Simmons proposed to his longtime girlfriend Shannon Tweed in Belize recently, TMZ reports. The couple has been together 28 years and share two children, 22-year-old son Nicholas and 18-year-old daughter Sophie. Simmons popped the question on the A&E reality show ‘Gene Simmons Family Jewels,’ which has followed the life of the Simmons brood since […]
Last Tuesday night I watched Gene Simmons Family Jewels and I commented how I was struck by the good advice that his son Nick gave him. He told him that he grew up thinking that his father was the best. However, now that the marital infidility has come out, it has made Nick think long and hard […]
Last night I watched Gene Simmons Family Jewels and I was struck by the good advice that his son Nick gave him. He told him that he grew up thinking that his father was the best. However, now that the marital infidility has come out, it has made Nick think long and hard about what […]
I watched with great interest the first episode of Gene Simmons show two days ago when his wife left him because of his repeated unfaithfulness. Nerve editors are divided on the subject of Chelsea Handler, by which I mean that I find her kind of funny and Ben made a barfy face when I said […]
I’ve never been a fan of waiting periods for gun purchases, but I’m warming to the idea of a pundit’s “Brady Bill.” Some political commentators could use a (voluntary) “cooling-off” period before they start using mass murder to score partisan points.
That could have saved Jennifer Rubin, the Washington Post‘s neoconservative blogger, some embarrassment over the weekend.
On Friday, before much was known about the horrific car-bombing and mass-shooting in Norway, she used the tragedy to argue against modest cuts to the Pentagon’s budget. Trimming the Defense Department’s budget — which accounts for nearly half the world’s military spending — would be “very rash … curbing our ability to defend the United States and our allies in a very dangerous world.” The slaughter in Norway was, she wrote, “a sobering reminder for those who think it’s too expensive to wage a war against jihadists.”
Actually, it’s a sobering reminder to think before you post. Even if Rubin had been right about who carried out the attacks, her argument was a crashing non sequitur, unless you think the United States needs new aircraft carriers to stop car bombings in Oslo.
As it turned out, the murderer was a native Norwegian, a European nationalist with “fiercely anti-Islamic and pro-Israel views,” according to the Jerusalem Post. Whoops!
Yet some of the lefties who ridiculed Rubin this weekend, like the Center for American Progress’ Matt Yglesias, had itchy Twitter fingers in the immediate aftermath of Jared Loughner’s rampage in Tucson last January. Without the slightest evidence, Yglesias and others pointed to a graphic on Sarah Palin’s website — an electoral map with cross hairs — as a possible incitement for Loughner to shoot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz.
In this case, the New Republic waited three whole days before publishing a piece indicting “the anti-Islamic ideology that has been spreading like a poison throughout European political culture for at least a decade.”
At this writing, Norwegian authorities haven’t yet ruled out the possibility that Breivik had some collaborators. But whether he’s a lone nut or one of several, the dark night of fascism hardly seems likely to descend across Europe because of a “climate of hate” fostered by European voters who have concerns about immigration from Muslim countries.
I haven’t yet waded through Breivik’s entire 1,500-page online magnum opus (the length itself is a good indication of megalomania — as is the fact that sections of it are cut-and-pasted from the Unabomber’s manifesto). The American Conservative‘s Daniel McCarthy calls it “a plagiarized jumble of nationalism, positivism, Christian symbolism, Unabomber-ism, neoconism, etc. Sound and fury,” likely signifying … not much. It’s likely that the only worthwhile political lesson to be gleaned from the horror of 7/22 is that Norway ought to consider having a longer maximum prison sentence than 21 years.
In general, invoking the ideological meanderings of psychopaths is a stalking horse for narrowing permissible dissent. Former New York Times columnist Frank Rich provided a classic in the genre with his February 2010 piece “The Axis of the Obsessed and Deranged,” in which he railed against the dangerous climate of anti-government rhetoric and warned that a “tax protester” who flew a plane into an Internal Revenue Service building in February may be a dark harbinger of Tea Party terrorism to come. (No such luck, Frank.)
But blaming Sarah Palin for Jared Loughner, or Al Gore for the Unabomber makes about as much sense as blaming Martin Scorsese and Jodie Foster for inciting John Hinckley. There’s little to be learned from the acts of “the obsessed and deranged.” But these incidents ought to teach us not to use tragedy to score partisan points.
The President asked us to contact those representing us in Washington and that is exactly what I am doing today. Let make a few points.
First, in the past few months I have responded to your request to provide SPECIFIC SPENDING CUT SUGGESTIONS to your office. I have done so over 100 times and I have also posted them one at a time on my blog www.HaltingArkansasLiberalswithTruth.com .
Second, I have also written many posts concerning your political views and many of these articles have got lots of hits on my blog. In fact, when I started in December of 2010 I was only getting a handful of hits every week, but now I have got over 60,000 hits in the first 7 months on my website and I have you to thank for a lot of those hits.
Third, Arkansas is turning conservative and I wonder if you will change with Arkansas. Just recently you went across the state saying that the Republicans wanted to push granny off the cliff. Does that sound like you are open to making changes to make sure that Medicare survives?
Fourth, you wanted me to give you specific suggestions to cut federal spending. I have an easy one for you: Eliminate the Dept of Education!! That would save over 100 billion right there!!!
Fifth, if you want to raise taxes on the job creators during this time then you will be guilty of destroying the recovery. You have already been guilty of slowly down the recovery with the silly stimulus bill. Every prediction that President Obama made about the stimulus have proven to be incorrect!!! Everyone of them!!!
I have done my duty that my President asked me to do by contacting you. Below you will find a letter that says perfectly what I think about this current debt ceiling crisis. Recently I got to hear Ernest Istook the president of the Heritage Foundation speak in Little Rock. He did a great job.
Our nation is in the midst of a fiscal crisis, but it is one that has nothing to do with an August 2 “deadline” for a deal or President Obama and Secretary Geithner’s fear mongering over recent days and weeks. The crisis is one of over $62 trillion in unfunded obligations that are the loudest warning bell possible of the systemic problems plaguing our nation. Washington should not ignore or postpone dealing with this problem once again.
Twice already this year, the House of Representatives has voted for plans that would address our fiscal crisis and save our nation from a creditworthiness downgrade. In April, the House passed a bold budget, which would place our nation on a different, more sustainable and prosperous course. Last week, the House passed the Cut, Cap and Balance Act, which would force future Congresses to live within their means and rapidly bring down our nation’s debt-to-GDP ratio. Unfortunately, both of these responsible proposals were defeated by an ideological Senate, which has offered few ideas of its own.
Clearly, the most blame belongs to the President and the Senate – a President who comes up with no useful fiscal plan of his own and a Senate that refuses to pass meaningful legislation to save the American dream from a fiscal tsunami. We cannot, however, continue business as usual by raising the debt limit without substantively addressing our nation’s fiscal challenges. The entire purpose of the debt limit is to put an end to borrowing when it reaches a point that our nation finds unacceptable. There is no point in having a debt limit if the option of using it to address overspending and overborrowing is so intimidating that it is unilaterally taken off the table.
Speaker Boehner’s most recent proposal to raise the debt limit is regrettably insufficient to our times. Step one of the Speaker’s proposal would cut $1.2 trillion in discretionary spending. Assuming all of these cuts materialized, this would reduce our nation’s projected debt at the end of the decade from $24.9 trillion to $23.7 trillion. Step two would create a special committee, which has three major problems: (1) The “deficit reduction” of $1.8 trillion remains insufficient for our times; (2) “Deficit reduction” is a well-known codeword for “tax increases”; and (3) 17 blue-ribbon panels, commissions and the like since 1982 have gotten our nation into the mess we are in and there is no obvious reason as to why the 18th will get us out. Further, this proposal would outline a fast track proposal that unduly limits the rights of the congressional minority.
All in all, under a best case scenario where all of the cuts envisioned in the Boehner plan come to fruition, they would only reduce our nation’s projected debt-to-GDP ratio from 104% to 92% – a ratio far higher than its current 62 percent, which Moody’s has already said must come down to maintain our nation’s stable outlook.
Harry Reid’s proposal to raise the debt ceiling is equally unacceptable. It appears to be the latest in a line of proposals that began with the McConnell Proposal, morphed into the McConnell-Reid Proposal, further deteriorated into the Gang of Six Proposal, and has now resurfaced as the Reid Proposal. Each of these insufficiently bold ideas would lead to an increase in the debt limit in exchange for few, if any, actual cuts off existing spending levels. In normal times we might take these as one step toward a path of fiscal sanity. But we do not have the luxury of taking that kind of small first step at this juncture. The rating agencies are poised to downgrade us within months if we don’t pass something like the House of Representatives’ first two attempts . . . The last thing our country needs is a clean debt limit increase with some fancy window dressing to try to fool the American people.
All in all, Heritage Action remains where we were at the start of the summer: absolutely convinced our nation is in fiscal crisis and certain that bold political leadership is necessary to save the American dream. Congress should drive down federal spending on the way to a balanced budget, while protecting America, and without raising taxes. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be what we will get from Washington, which has irresponsibly turned its back on the only real plans out there: The House Budget and the Cut, Cap and Balance Act. As such, Washington should be forced to live under the current debt limit until it’s ready to make tough choices – choices that it should make, and has time to make, this week.
Sincerely,
Michael A. Needham Chief Executive Officer
___________________________________
Thank you for your time. I know that you are very busy.
John Brummett in his article, “By Pryor prediction, gang of 6 emerges,” Arkansas News Bureau, July 21, 2011 asserts: So what’s in this great new plan from the Gang of Six? Only about $4 trillion in real deficit reduction achieved by deep defense cuts, commission-delegated reductions in spending for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, […]
John Brummett in his article, “By Pryor prediction, gang of 6 emerges,” Arkansas News Bureau, July 21, 2011 asserts: So what’s in this great new plan from the Gang of Six? Only about $4 trillion in real deficit reduction achieved by deep defense cuts, commission-delegated reductions in spending for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, plugging […]
Today I read in the article, “Pryor backing bipartisan debt reduction plan,” Arkansas News Bureau, July 20,2011 the following words: Sen. Mark Pryor said today he supports a $3.7 trillion deficit-reduction plan unveiled Tuesday by six Republican and Democrats as a “carefully crafted balanced” way to avert a looming financial crisis. The Arkansas Democrat was […]
That’s no way to get out of debt. Debtors — the government, you, me — don’t stop increasing debt simply by declaring they will stop doing so. The hole will keep getting dug unless hard choices are made about reducing the right expenditures and raising the right taxes. Congress, the president, and, indeed, the American people have not yet made those choices. Until that happens, the government will keep borrowing.
The question is, will it do so responsibly, or as a deadbeat dad?
There is good news. At least we’re talking about the debt instead of ignoring it.
The huge deficits are the problem. People want the debt ceiling raised, but if the huge deficits continue then what is the use? The article below shows how our government will have their credit rating devalued UNLESS WE STOP RUNNING UP BIG DEFICTIS EVERY YEAR!!
Americans, and global financial markets, are watching Washington nervously for a real plan—one that will put the nation squarely on a path to solving our twin crises of spending and debt. Without strong structural changes in spending, our debt will balloon out of control.
At stake are two issues. The short-term is obvious – will there be an increase in the debt limit before August 3? Despite the President and his team practically begging Wall Street to collapse, the markets and the rating agencies believe that there will be an increase and the federal government can safely avoid the chaos of prioritizing its bills in order to service the debt. Though they warn of the consequences if this doesn’t happen, Standard & Poor’s, has stated that
…the risk of a payment default is small, though increasing…Standard and Poor’s still anticipates that lawmakers will raise the debt ceiling by the end of July to avoid those outcomes.”
The second and even more crucial issue is whether Congress will take necessary action beyond the next year to bring our debt under control over the medium and long-term. This is where the rating agencies really voice their strong concern. Again, Standard & Poor’s:
Congress and the Administration might also settle for a smaller increase in the debt ceiling, or they might agree to a plan that, while avoiding a near-term default, might not, in our view, materially improve our base case expectation for the future path of the net general government debt-to-GDP ratio.”
Moody’s response is similar:
The outlook assigned at that time to the government bond rating would very likely be changed to negative at the conclusion of the review unless substantial and credible agreement is achieved on a budget that includes long-term deficit reduction. To retain a stable outlook, such an agreement should include a deficit trajectory that leads to stabilization and then decline in the ratios of federal government debt to GDP and debt to revenue beginning within the next few years.
What the rating agencies are saying is that Congress and the President must pass legislation that immediately begins to rein in deficits and bring our debt down to more acceptable levels, and either keeps it there or continues to drive it down further.
The Boehner proposal would cut $1.2 trillion in discretionary spending. There is no assurance that these cuts will occur, but let’s assume they do. Let’s even be generous and assume that they are – in the words of S&P– “enacted and maintained throughout the decade.” This would cut debt held by the public from its projected $24.9 trillion in 2021 to $23.7 trillion, and when measured against the economy from 104% to 99.4%. Certainly, this is an improvement, but it is hardly declining from today’s levels, nor would these cuts fundamentally restructure entitlements – the real driver of our deficits in the future.
Step two in the Boehner proposal would reduce deficits by an additional $1.8 trillion over ten years. Even assuming these cuts all happen, and even assuming they were all spending cuts – a broad assumption given the President’s rhetoric surrounding tax hikes on the wealthy – this would bring publicly held debt down to 92% of GDP. Better, but not that much. Even throwing in interest savings from deficit reduction would bring this down to 88%. Again, not much improvement and far worse than today’s debt ratio.
The Reid proposal doesn’t move the ball forward enough either. At best it falls somewhat short of Boehner’s $3 trillion by $800 billion ($1.2 trillion in discretionary and some confusing savings to be had from winding down operations in Iraq and Afghanistan of $1.0 trillion.)
Neither of this week’s dueling debt ceiling proposals would pass the test from Moody’s or Standard and Poor’s for a credible, firm and actionable plan that would turn the tide of our deficits to put our debt on a manageable track. And if that holds true, then a downgrade by the rating agencies could occur smack in the very election year the President is trying to scoot through.
Because spending is set to grow so significantly over the decade, the kind of onesie-twosie approach to cutting spending and increasing the debt limit is simply not adequate. Net interest payments are projected to more than triple over the next decade. The longer Congress waits to seriously control spending, the more it will have to cut just to offset bourgeoning interest costs. And if interest rates suddenly rise? Well, we have an even bigger problem on our hands.
And, as babyboomers flood into Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid swell in tandem, the kinds of changes necessary to rein in spending on these programs will be much more difficult. Here again, the longer they duck the problem, the more likely a meltdown ahead.
The fact is, the only plan that could likely pass muster with Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s is House passed, Cut, Cap and Balance. Why? They tackle spending with firm caps that are enforceable, and before the end of the decade bring spending down to 19.9% of GDP and keep it there. With the right spending changes it could fall, along with debt levels, from there. Congress must act now to rein in spending and get our debt under control. It’s time for the dueling to end.
LITTLE ROCK — I respect a politician who actually keeps his promises. Way too many politicos I’ve known over the years have specialized in meaningless lip movement and deceptive, self-serving tactics.
So imagine the width of my smile to see Lt. Gov. Mark Darr live up to his campaign promise by joining in the lawsuit against the wildly unpopular Obamacare law. The public relations name for this unsustainable, politicized mess of a law is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Wow, “protection” and “affordable” in one title. Such illusion ought to earn some promotional wag a bonus.
Acting in his capacity as an individual, our Republican lieutenant governor filed an amicus brief in Missouri Lt. Gov. Pete Kinder’s lawsuit that echoes the sentiments of most Arkansans.
Twenty-one states thus far have filed a similar brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit in support of Kinder in his constitutional challenge to the individual mandate provision of the Democrat’s health-care law. Separately, more than 150 elected executive and legislative officials of states within the Eighth Circuit have filed a brief asking the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals to reach a decision regarding the substantive constitutional issue and not delay resolving the case on procedural grounds.
Darr did his homework and understands just how unacceptable and unsustainable this health-care law truly is. “According to the Arkansas Department of Human Services there are currently 26 percent or 771,000 Arkansans on Medicaid,” he said the other day in a press release. “Once the health care law goes into effect in 2014 over 35 percent or 1,021,000 will qualify for Medicaid. The federal government will pay for 100 percent of the Medicaid expansion in our state through 2016, and then the amount will gradually be reduced to 90 percent by 2020. That means in ten years, the cost to the state will be about $200 million a year. This is unsustainable.
“As a small business owner,” Darr (a Northwest Arkansas pizza mogul) continued, “I fully understand the ramifications this law will have to small businesses across our state. I have had the opportunity over the last year and a half to speak with small business owners and major employers concerning this issue. They have been and still remain steadfastly opposed to the healthcare reform act.”
Kinder said he welcomed what he called “very significant and welcome” support for his challenge, including some kind words for Darr, commending him “for his willingness to step forward and lead on this crucial issue. [Darr] recognizes the individual mandate is an overreach of the federal government’s power into the lives of the citizens of Arkansas. I’m proud to stand with him as he joins this fight on behalf of the people of his state.”
Darr said he hopes the Eighth Circuit will move quickly to reach a just decision. Don’t most of us.
Looks like everyone may fold a bit, according to President Obama’s statement on a Senate-driven compromise. Rich people are held harmless in dealing with the U.S. budget. Big spending cuts will be made. The debt ceiling is lifted sufficiently to last through the 2012 election. Republicans give up on insistence on long-term solution. Sour tastes all around, except if the deal prevents U.S. defaults. Here’s a roundup.
However …. House Republicans seem determined to get their way or wreck the country.
_______________________
There is only two problems. First, there had been no deal cut. (Actually on Politico on Sunday afternoon they also reported a deal had been cut, but they jumped the gun like Max did here).
Second, the Republicans are right to protect the American job producers from any future tax increases that would kill our recovery.
David Addington nails it below in his summary of President Obama’s speech:
It’s hard to understand why President Obama took to the airwaves tonight at prime time. He still has no plan for dealing with government overspending and overborrowing, and he gave the nation very little except a repetition of his never-ending call for tax hikes.
In noting the risk of ever-increasing debt, President Obama said every family knows that “a little credit card debt is manageable.” The government has racked up $14.294 trillion in debt — thought of by no-one as a little credit card debt. The spend-tax-and-borrow crowd, currently headed by President Obama, has been in charge in Washington too long. They have mortgaged the futures of our children and grandchildren. Our government is so deep in debt that the share of debt of a baby born today is $45,000.
It is time for the spend-tax-and-borrow crowd to stop. As the President indicated, conservatives want deep spending cuts. In contrast, President Obama wants more taxes, a terrible idea. First, the government already takes too much money from the pockets of Americans in taxes. Second, if Americans give the government more money in taxes, the government will just find ways to spend it, rather than using it to pay off the public debt. Third, raising taxes reduces investment, which cuts economic growth and kills jobs.
Americans sent a message in the election of 2010 — cut the size and cost of government. Conservatives must act now to drive down spending on the way to a balanced budget, while protecting America, and without raising taxes. Forget the McConnell, McConnell-Reid, Coburn, Gang-of-Six, Boehner, and Reid plans. Go with the American plan — cut government spending, deeply and right now, for the good of the country.
Jim Morrison – Feast Of Friends – (The Doors Documentary) (1969) (Paul Ferrara) 1/4
I was saddened by the recent death of Amy Winehouse and her inclusion into the “27 Club.” This series I am starting today looks at the search that each one of these entertainers were on during their lives. Today I look at Jim Morrison of the Doors.
From: James Riordan, Stone: The Controversies, Excesses, and Exploits of a Radical Filmmaker, Hyperion: New York, NY (1995), page 340:
[Val] Kilmer’s reaction seems to be one of relief that the project [The Doors] was over, but as far as Morrison goes, he too gained a more profound understanding. “He had a sincere search,” he says of Morrison. “He may have chosen some of the wrong tools, but I think he tried to keep open an avenue of hope through spirituality. But I also think he was a bit of a cop-out because he was deathly frightened of committing to a practice, a condition, a way to behave, something to live for or live out of. I think cool was very important to him, and I’ve always battled that vanity. I think I’ve found through playing this character an opportunity to reexperience some of my life, to reevaluate. It seems to have strengthened things I have always believed . . . in God, and a reality that’s a foundation for living. To put yourself on the line, to confront that . . . that fear.”
Jim Morrison – Feast Of Friends – (The Doors Documentary) (1969) (Paul Ferrara) 2/4
was there anything that morrison lacked? the epitome of rock stardom, perfect symmetrical chiselled features, insanely cool, leather pants and pirate shirts, a big beautiful bellicose baritone of a voice, unparalleled charisma and a wild side of pure unfettered freedom that unfortunately led to a very short career and an early death. a creative visionary who led the doors, which could go down as the quirkiest “big band” of all time. if you listen to the instrumentation and their very peculiar songwriting style it almost sounded as if “the carnival was in town”. yet they could be the “pound for pound” choice for bands with the most hits in ratio to their short career. they were only around for a few years but they contributed so much to our musical landscape.
as much of a creative collaborative force as the doors were, it was morrison that made them cool. he was also a sex god for the ages, and must have enjoyed his short time here immensely what with the freewheeling, free lovin 60′s in full flight.
a drug and alcohol user of copious amounts which will certainly become a common thread throughout this list, james douglas morrison flamed out in a bathtub in paris at the tender age of 27.
truly one of the most iconic front men to ever pick up a mike, a pure pagan, the lizard king will never be forgotten. long live the king!
essential listening: debut album, LA woman, strange days (the doors)
Jim Morrison – Feast Of Friends – (The Doors Documentary) (1969) (Paul Ferrara) 3/4
Thanks for writing and sharing your opinions. I hope your heart is open to our response. I read your email and still have no doubt in my mind, that Jim Morrison was steeped in the occult; he was being manipulated by demonic forces to do Satan’s bidding. Personally, I believe the evidence is more than overwhelming. Even Morrison’s biographers admit that Jim Morrison was involved in the occult and in the spirit world.
Jane, you wrote:
“As far as The Doors’ exposé is concerned, to begin with, you were not entirely forthright with the quotation from Wilderness. You posted “…an appearance of the devil on a Venice canal. Running, I saw Satan.” In actuality it reads “…an appearance of the devil on a Venice canal. Running, I saw a Satan or Satyr, moving beside me, a fleshy shadow of my secret mind. Running. Knowing.”
Before I comment on this, later on in your email you acknowledged that Morrison believed that spirits possessed him. His repeated identification with Satan and satanic imagery, whether it is in regard to the inspiration of his music or antichrist position, is quite revealing. The fact that he mentions a “Satyr” along with “the devil [and] Satan” does not detract from our point that he identified with dark satanic forces, but accentuates it all the more. Morrison’s usage of a Satyr reveals more than a poetic flair, but reflects Morrison’s knowledge of Bacchius occult ritual and his own experiences, along with how he interpreted them.
Jim Morrison, Hell & the Resurrection
Jim Morrison knew the truth and rejected it; he preferred temporal fame, power and eternal torment in hell, the house of detention, rather than eternal life and the resurrection of the righteous. Morrison sings:
“Cancel my subscription to the.. resurrection. Send my credentials to the house of detention I got some friends inside…”
Demonic spirit entities possess human beings not only in an effort to destroy them, as was the case with Jim Morrison, but to also influence the masses. The Scripture reveals that Satan himself was created with musical abilities, as were the angels (Isaiah 14; Ezekiel 28; Job 38 and Revelation 5 ). Such spirits use music to seduce us and teach demonic doctrines:
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,” –1 Tim. 4:1
The apostle Paul warned:
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” –Ephesians 6:10-12
Morrison’s music, sadly, was used to seduce and indoctrinate his audiences into utter tragic lifestyles. Along with other rock gods, Morrison led millions of impressionable youth into destruction through his advocacy of drugs, sexual perversion, the occult and violence. When describing the Doors’ music, Morrison said, “Right now I’m more interested in the dark side of life, the evil thing, the dark side of the moon, the night-time.” Morrison also said, “I am interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos, especially activity that seems to have no meaning.” At times, Morrison would tell his young impressionable fans while in concert, “There are no rules; there are no limits.” This was a mere echo of Satanist Aleister Crowley’s satanic maxim, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.”
Jim Morrison & Satanist Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley
It is not hard to surmise where Morrison’s loyalties lie when we realize that he paid homage to Satanist Aleister Crowley on the cover of the Doors 13 album. On this cover, we see Jim Morrison and the other members of the Doors huddled around a bust of Satanist, Aleister Crowley. Crowley was a confessed Satanist who hated the Lord Jesus Christ declaring, “with my hawk’s head I peck out the eyes of Jesus as he hangs upon the cross,” and giving his allegiance to Satan:
“I bind my blood in Satan’s hands, all this that lieth betwixt my hands, too thee, the Beast, and thy control, I pledge me; body, mind, and soul” –Aleister Crowley, Satanic Extracts, Black Lodge Publishing, The Estate of Aleister Crowley, 1991, p. 1
Jane, I am not sure how you would even attempt to exonerate Morrison’s exaltation of Aleister Crowley and his teachings. Crowley taught repeatedly the sacrifice of children to Satan. He stated:
“For the highest spiritual working one must accordingly choose that victim which contains the greatest and purest force. A male child of perfect innocence and high intelligence is the most satisfactory and suitable victim.” –Aleister Crowley, Magick: In Theory and Practice, 1973, p. 219
In our exposé, we show an audio clip of Morrison speaking of sacrificing to the gods, which we have seen really are demons. This is not to say that Morrison ever made such sacrifices, but he glorified the idea and participated in a Wiccan wedding ceremony, wherein he smeared blood all over his girlfriend. Incidentally, Gerald Gardner, who started Wicca was a member of Crowley’s O.T.O., and met with Crowley for guidance when he organized the ceremonial magick of Wicca. He developed the Wiccan rede. “An it harm none, do what thou wilt,” which was a kinder, gentler form of Crowley’s earlier slogan, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law”; it was sure to gather more adherents under the guise of a kinder and gentler form of Satanism, at least from Gardner and Crowley’s perspective. Crowley also taught that one was to sacrifice little girls to Satan, and mutilate them by dismembering them and writing the names of different demon gods on their lifeless limbs.
Jane, you state of a clip we use of Morrison:
“The media is the message, and the message is me,” [that we use it] as if Jim was referring to himself. He said that during an interview with Tony Thomas of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1970 (Available on CD at The Doors website). The two of them were discussing music; Jim was saying he enjoyed blues and early rock and roll.”
Jane, I am sorry, but this is another example of where you misjudge us while not having all of the facts. First of all, we simply play a clip without any of our own comment there. We found the clip from a pro Doors video that only plays that part of the clip. Moreover, the context in the interview itself bares out that Morrison applies the saying to himself and believes others should do the same. He says,
“What everyone should say is, ‘the medium is the message, and the message is me.’ That’s the answer, is for everyone to…uh…you’re asking for an answer, the answer is for everyone to stand up and say, ‘I’m me,’ and be fully aware of that fact and let everyone else know it, that you are yourself and express it.”
Obviously, Jim Morrison concurs with the statement and is pushing his own personal philosophy on others. Obviously, Morrison knew he was an icon and that he himself was a message and in many ways he played this role to the hilt and preached his diabolical and destructive views from his shaman pulpit which was the concert stage. Morrison was well aware that he and the Doors were a huge influence upon his fans, and in the same interview states, “they’re being programmed by their radios,” and to the degree that the Doors were getting airplay was the degree in which they too were programming their fans along with albums, concerts, and interviews. Sadly as we shall see such programming by so many rock stars, Morrison included has had a devastating affect on our culture.
Jim Morrison & the Family
I just talked to a dear sister in the Lord, named Rosalind, who last week shared her heart wrenching story with me. She grew up in Watts in Los Angeles and was abandoned by her mother who she has seen, sadly, only a couple of times in her life. She told me that her mother was deluded into actually believing that Jim Morrison was a prophet. I could not help but think this was interesting timing in light of your letter defending him. She said that her mother bought into the lifestyle that Jim Morrison was glorifying to the impressionable and easily led hippie youth culture. Morrison’s lies and Crowleyan philosophy ended up destroying her mother and would be family. This should not be a great shock as Satanist Aleister Crowley who influenced Morrison said that “The family” is “public enemy number one.” Thankfully, Rosalind’s grandmother raised her and led her to the Lord Jesus Christ. Rosalind ended up becoming a social worker in Los Angeles and has since gone on to marry and begin a family of her own. Thankfully, she did not follow Jim Morrison but rather found true freedom that comes through knowing Jesus Christ, the Son of God! I hope and pray her mother finds that same freedom and they are united in the future.
No doubt, as Crowley taught Morrison in many ways treated his immediate family as public enemy number one. Morrison shut his parents totally out of his life. Even though his father had paid for his schooling at UCLA, he refused to talk to him after he became a rock star. In a dire attempt to talk to her son, Jim Morrison’s mother attended one of his concerts, which Jim Morrison closed by singing “The End.” According to Doors biographer, Jerry Hopkins, in No One Gets Out of Here Alive, when he sang the words about wanting to kill his father and have sex with his mother, “Father, ‘Yes son’, I want to kill you, Mother…I want to…f@#$ you”, Morrison “gave his mother a vacant stare, and then he screamed again, this time showing his teeth” (Jerry Hopkins, No One Gets Out of Here Alive).
Morrison’s Tragic End
The fifth commandment is to honor our parents and with it comes the promise of long life:
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you” –Exodus 20:12
Tragically, so many rock stars have died young because of their rebellion against authority, whether it be God’s or parental. God’s Word declares:
“But You, O God, will bring them down to the pit of destruction; Men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.” –Psalm 55:23
Sadly, Jim Morrison bought into Satan’s deception and his life ended at the young age of 27. Jesus Christ said that Satan is a murderer and the father of lies (John 8:44 ). Morrison died confused, tormented and depressed. His biographers point out that he drank continually to quell the voices of the evil spirits that continually tormented him. Satan promises freedom, but leads his followers into bondage and destruction. In Hungry for Heaven, Steve Turner, describes Crowley’s last days and death this way:
“Crowley finished his life as a sick, wasted heroin addict given to black rages and doubts about the value of his life’s work. His last words as he passed into a coma on December 1, 1947, were, “I am perplexed…”
–Steve Turner, Hungry for Heaven, pp. 92,97,98
Jim Morrison’s life before his death was characterized by wanton destruction. There is no evidence that he ever renounced his involvement in the occult and turned to the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness and eternal salvation. Whether it was beating and bludgeoning his “girlfriends,” stealing from even his “friends,” blaspheming God, repeated LSD inebriation, public nudity, endangering the lives of others while running several red lights on Sunset Boulevard at 100 miles per hour, Satan had his way with Jim Morrison. Sadly, as the electric Shaman, the demonic world used him like so many other rock stars to influence millions of young people toward destruction as well. Jane, in your email you state:
“My moment came about three years ago and I never felt such a sense of relief as I did then and still do. So much of what Jim Morrison wrote and spoke speaks volumes to me and helped me to break free from my chains.”
Genuine Freedom verses Counterfeit Freedom
Jane, I believe that you have substituted Jim Morrison with the place in your heart that only God should truly occupy. Jesus said that He is the one who has come to set the captives free (Luke 4:18-19 ). Jesus is the fulfillment of the message that God gave through the Old Testament prophets; that the Coming Savior would deliver those who are lost and enslaved to sin from death, the devil and eternal damnation. Jesus declared:
“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free….”I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed…..You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies….if anyone keeps your word, he will never taste death.” –John 8:32, 34-36, 44, 52b
Jane, I was sorry to read about your experience when you stated:
“I resolved myself to the fact that I was never truly called and just figured I should have been because everyone around me seem to believe it with every fiber of their being. But after a while I just couldn’t pretend anymore.”
I thank God that we don’t need to pretend but can have a relationship with God through the shed blood of Christ that was poured out as payment for our sins. Jesus rose from the grave and conquered sin, death and the satanic forces that would hold us bound. The evidence all around us of the spiritual world and its affects on the masses is just one more confirmation to the veracity of Scripture; only the Bible reveals the darkness in the spiritual world for what it is, and the evil eschatological designs as to just where these spiritual rulers of darkness are leading the world. My hope and prayer is that you will realize that you are incredibly loved by God (John 3:16-17 ) and that perhaps God has allowed us to dialogue to reveal the truth to you. Jesus declared:
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” –John 10:10
I believe the Lord wants you to know that if you turn to Him, He has open arms to receive you to Himself. Jesus, who cannot lie, promised, “whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37b ). Jane, our sin has consequences. Sin is transgression of God’s moral law. All have sinned (Romans 3:23 ) and the wages of sin is death, but thanks be to God that the free gift of God is eternal life to those who turn to Him in repentant faith (Romans 6:23 ). Jane, you only need to come to Him in faith. The prodigal son returned to His father’s house expecting to be rejected as a son but hoping to perhaps be accepted as a servant. Much to his great surprise and eternal delight, he was treated as a son and forgiven and blessed beyond his wildest dreams:
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”‘ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.” –Luke 15:17-24
Jane, the Lord’s arms are open and he is ready to forgive you. The question is, will you turn from the broad road that leads to destruction and receive His eternal love and grace? I have already prayed for you a few times, and we are here to help you if you have sincere questions and desire our help. I hope this response clarifies our position. May the Lord draw you to Himself and I pray that you will respond:
“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” –John 12:32
Third — though in many ways first — in the trifecta of ’60s icons who died within a year of one another at the same tender age, Jim Morrison is the one whose death remains the most mysterious. This much we know (or think we know): The Doors’ frontman died in a bathtub in his Paris apartment. He had been drinking whiskey. He had been shooting heroin. His girlfriend Pamela Courson was in the apartment with him. She found his body. No autopsy was performed. The conspiracy theories attending his death run a staggering range from “he was murdered” to “he never actually died.” We’ll never be sure. One thing was certain: When his death was reported to the world, on July 3, 1971, Morrison was 27 years old.
The Acrobat (1930) is a simple, surreal cartoon, almost comical in its minimalism. It’s practically a one-line drawing that was seemingly slapdashed off in a few minutes, offering a barely feasible depiction of the body’s pliability. With utmost economy (a black curve for an eye, a placid little ripple for a mouth), Picasso etches on his subject’s face an expression of Zen bliss, perhaps triggered by the realization that his entire body has become elongated legs and arms, which then reversed roles. How liberating…
Picasso reportedly often experienced dreams in which his limbs grew to absurd dimensions. With primitive suppleness, The Acrobat captures that sort of extravagant wish fulfillment, the byproduct of a mind that likely scarcely harbored a moment of self-doubt. This is phallic gigantism in extremis and a not-so-subtle announcement by Picasso that he can and will do whatever the hell he pleases.
If Picasso were a musician—he was the Miles Davis of painters, as commentators have asserted, right?—The Acrobat would be a non-LP B-side, an anomalous, nonchalant ditty that contains an otherwise unexpressed kernel of the artist’s idiosyncratic genius.
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You can see this painting in San Francisco right now.
Health Care. Heritage’s plan makes important changes at all levels of
the health care system. The Heritage plan encourages consumer choice and
increased competition to reduce health care costs. Significantly, some of the
key Heritage reforms alter the price of health care, which will affect consumer
decisions. This demand side reform will reduce some health care spending by
encouraging consumers to make more efficient choices on plans and services,
thereby reducing health care outlays across the board. Some of the health care
proposals, such as the Medicare reforms, will also shift the cost curve of
health care.
The Heritage plan will also affect the supplier
side of health care providers. With increased competition, suppliers will be
encouraged to improve their business models and reduce their costs to consumers.
When highly regulated markets are more free and subject to competitive
pressures, costs can drop quickly and substantially. For example, the
deregulation of the airline industry reduced airfares by more than 20 percent in
only 20 years.[9]
Regulatory policy changes and increased competition have prompted sharp price
reductions in other industries, such as communications.
This fundamental downward shift in the cost curve of health care is
anticipated, but not modeled in this static analysisof the Heritage
plan. We expect the prices of certain health care goods and services to fall.
These effects will be included in the dynamic analyses,but our static
scoremodeling of the proposal, including the Medicare reforms, does not
model a scenario in which the change in prices would fundamentally change the
growth path of the cost curve. Instead, we model the price changes as a change
in the level of spending.Some of the price changes will likely spill
over into the non-Medicare market, but modeling those effects were outside the
scope of the analysis because the cost of the health care tax credit and
Medicaid are not tied to the price of health care.
Health Care for the Working-Age Population. The Heritage plan
fundamentally reforms the American health care system beginning with a critical
change in the tax treatment of health insurance. The plan replaces the current
tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance with premium assistance
for most American households. This policy change eliminates the current inequity
in which only individuals with access to employer-sponsored insurance receive
favorable tax treatment and the additional inequity generated by the subsidies
in PPACA. This will reduce labor market distortions, such as “job lock,” and
remove the incentive created in the PPACA for individuals to stop working to
qualify for a generous subsidy for health insurance. The Heritage premium
support model will reduce the dominance of employers in selecting one or two
plans for their workers and allow individuals greater freedom to shop for an
insurance plan that will provide the best health care at the best value for
their families.
To best preserve public funds, the Heritage plan begins phasing out the tax
credit at $100,000 in income for a family and $50,000 for an individual. The tax
credit is completely phased out at $170,000 for a family and $90,000 for an
individual. The current Medicaid eligibility structure as well as the subsidy
cliff in the PPACA discourages people near the upper income limit from pursuing
better job opportunities for fear of losing Medicaid coverage for themselves or
their children. Importantly, the Heritage plan alleviates this disincentive for
upward mobility. The tax credit is also available to individuals well into the
middle class. For instance, individuals and families earning well over 400
percent of the federal poverty line (about $90,000 for a family of four), the
level at which the health insurance subsidies in PPACA phase out, will be
eligible for a tax credit.
Families with children and incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty
line qualify for an additional subsidy under the plan. This subsidy can be used
to pay insurance premiums or other health-related expenses. The additional
subsidies phase out slowly to prevent effective marginal tax rates from being
too high for eligible low-income workers.
