The Felonious Monk Tells The President & Federal Government to PAY THEIR BILLS!

FYI - Some REAL education & #TRUTH for the Federal Government from The Felonious Monk!

#LiveFree

#ProgressiveLibertarian

#PushBack

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Gov. Gary Johnson: Government shuts down, and we're still here.

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Government shuts down, and we're still here

 

Friends,

 

I was a Governor for eight years. I know a little bit about running a government, being the “Chief Executive” of bureaucracy.

 

And I can tell you this. If my government lawyers came to me and said, even though 83% of the government can remain open under a so-called “shutdown”, that I didn’t have the authority to pay the death benefits to families of fallen American service members, I WOULD FIND SOME NEW LAWYERS.  

 

Make no mistake, this “shutdown” (which is really only a modest slow-down) is an embarrassing display of the collective incompetence of our government.  It won’t even save any money. Instead, if we ever get an honest accounting, I promise you that we will find that it has, in reality, cost us taxpayers a bundle.  It obviously costs more to close an open-air monument than to leave it open.  It costs more to shut down a website for a few days than to simply leave it alone.  And then there are the government employees, through no fault of their own, who will end up being paid for not working.  And now we have States loaning the Feds money to keep national parks open -- with no real promise of being repaid.

 

At the same time, this slow-down has shown Americans some things that are worth noting. First, while some damage has been done to undeserving people by this exercise in mismanagement, the reality is that, 11 days into the shutdown, we’re still here.  The world has not come to an end.  We’re getting a glimpse of the big-government advocates’ worst nightmare: Americans seeing that much of what government does really isn’t necessary.  

 

It’s interesting that some have suggested “reopening” the government in pieces, consciously deciding which programs to restore.  While doing so in response to political pressure is not the best way to govern, it is amusing that this approach has been widely rejected by the politicians. It’s amusing because THAT’S WHAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO DO IN THE FIRST PLACE. That’s why there is an appropriations process, and why there is supposed to actually be a budget.  But to the politicians in Washington, who haven’t actually adopted a budget in years, going through a process to actually debate and decide what to spend money on has become a radical idea.  

 

In short, as ridiculous as it is, this “slow-down” is an opportunity, and the Our America Initiative and I are seizing it.  Beginning tomorrow, I will be talking about the utter dysfunction of the government on the national news.  Later this month, I will be traveling to Washington, DC, to carry our message directly to the politicians who are the problem.

 

But we need more than just my voice.  We need yours.  Your contribution at OurAmericaInitiative.com makes it possible for us to spread our message of fiscal sanity, small government and liberty across the Internet, to the media, and most important, to the millions of Americans who share our views.

 

This “shutdown” gives us a chance to put liberty and freedom from a government that is out of control in front of the American people -- as a real alternative to the status quo.  Help us seize that opportunity!  Go to OurAmericaInitiative.com today and help.

 

Thank you.

 

 

Governor Gary Johnson

Honorary Chairman

A Conversation with Jon Huntsman - a REAL public servant

FYI - A GREAT conversation with former Governor and Ambassador, Jon Huntsman, Jr. - a REAL public servant, not a politician. 

This really is a must watch with some very good food for thought.

#LiveFree


-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Libertarian Party Applauds DOMA Strikedown.

FYI - From the Libertarian Party and www.LP.org.

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

News Release June 26, 2013   Libertarian Party applauds DOMA strikedown The Libertarian Party applauds the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision today to strike the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a federal law that discriminates against non-heterosexual marriages. The Libertarian Party has supported marriage equality since its founding in 1971. "The Republican Party has never supported marriage equality," said Laura Delhomme, 2013 Libertarian candidate for delegate in Virginia. "Democrats, despite their alleged support of civil liberties, only added a reference to same-sex marriage to their party platform in 2012 — when it became politically convenient." DOMA was pushed through by a GOP-led Congress and signed by a Democratic president. "This is a landmark victory for personal freedom," said Geoffrey J. Neale, chair of the Libertarian National Committee. "The Democrats and Republicans who have advanced, defended, and let stand government intrusion into the private contracts and choices of consenting adults will be remembered for their inhumanity on this issue." Ending DOMA means that the federal government will recognize the legal marriages of same-sex couples in states that recognize marriage equality. This is a good first step toward ending government discrimination that has affected millions of Americans. Libertarian candidates have long rallied for marriage equality. This year, Robert Sarvis, Libertarian Party of Virginia candidate for governor, along with Delhomme and several other candidates for legislature, have vowed to press for recognition of same-sex marriage in Virginia. Libertarian candidates in New Jersey, the only other state that is holding legislative races this year, are also calling for marriage equality. "Same-sex couples are denied the right to marry because the governor vetoed the marriage equality bill that would have guaranteed their civil rights," said Ken Kaplan, Libertarian for governor in New Jersey. "I will sign such a bill." The Libertarian Party platform states that "Sexual orientation, preference, gender, or gender identity should have no impact on the government's treatment of individuals, such as in current marriage, child custody, adoption, immigration or military service laws." A recent poll from ABC News/Washington Post shows that 58 percent of Americans support marriage equality, a rapid change from just a decade ago, when only 39 percent supported it. Americans are coming around to the Libertarian view that big government does not belong in our lives, whether it’s our bedrooms or our wallets. Visit LP.org to share this release!   Please donate to the Libertarian Party, working to advance peace, individual rights, and American prosperity. Paid for by the Libertarian National Committee 2600 Virginia Ave, N.W. Suite 200, Washington D.C. 20037 Content not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.

Requiring Work For Welfare is a MUST!

FYI - From former Speaker Newt Gingrich/Gingrich Productions.

 

I don't often agree with Speaker Gingrich, but this is a MUST!

 

#LiveFree

 

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

 

 

Requiring Paychecks for Food Stamps

Gingrich Productions

June 19, 2013

Newt Gingrich

To receive Newt’s weekly newsletter, click here.

Just before we passed welfare reform in 1996, many on the left promised dire consequences for millions of American families if the legislation were to become law. They said the requirement that people go back to work after two years of taxpayer support was draconian. The late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan actually characterized it as “the most brutal act of social policy since Reconstruction.”

Of course, the predictions of a return to the era of Oliver Twist were wildly off base. The reform proved to be one of the most successful social policies in American history. Two-thirds of welfare recipients got a job or went to school. Within four years, 4.2 million people rose out of poverty. In five years, child poverty was at an all-time low, having dropped by 25 percent.

The work requirement was at the heart of the law, and was the key to achieving these gains. As Peter Ferrara records in his book America’s Ticking Bankruptcy Bomb, the states which opted for the strongest implementations of the work requirement saw their welfare rolls reduced dramatically: Wyoming by 97%, Idaho by 90%, Florida by 89%, Louisiana by 89%, Illinois by 89%, Georgia by 89%, North Carolina by 87%, Oklahoma by 85%, Wisconsin by 84%, Texas by 84%, Mississippi by 84%.

Literally millions of people moved from dependency to independence, from welfare checks to paychecks. The work requirement worked.

People on both sides of the aisle now recognize the success of the reform. Even President Obama, who opposed the law at the time it was passed, said as a candidate in 2008 that he “was much more concerned ten years ago, when President Clinton signed the bill, that this would have disastrous results…It worked better than a lot of people anticipated.”

The reform’s work requirement applied to one of the largest federal welfare programs (TANF), but today there are 184 means-tested federal programs.

One in particular, the food stamp program (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP), is now approaching a level of bloat comparable to that which prompted the original welfare reform in 1996.

Nearly 50 million Americans — 1 in 6 — are receiving food stamps. Apologists for this incredible number claim the rolls have swelled because of the recession, but the fact is, spending on SNAP doubled during the 7 years before the crisis, too. The program now costs more than four times what we spent on it in 2000, and the government regularly buys advertisements in an effort to enroll more people.

That explosion screams for the kind of bipartisan reform that was so successful in 1996.
SNAP formally includes a work requirement, but it is riddled with loopholes. For one thing, it doesn’t apply if you have a dependent child. For another, states can obtain waivers to exempt all their recipients from the requirement. Forty-four states and the District of Columbia currently have such waivers. In 2011, fully half of food stamp households were headed by people who were neither working nor even looking for work. Only 22% were employed.

We’ve seen watered down work requirements before. In 2005 the Government Accountability Office found some states had implemented TANF to categorize as “work” activities like “bed rest, short-term hospitalizations … physical rehabilitation, which could include massage, regulated exercise … personal journaling, motivational reading, exercise at home, smoking cessation, and weight loss promotion.”

When the requirements are that toothless, however, they don’t have the intended effect of nudging recipients out of dependency and into self-sufficiency. They no longer incentivize the changes that would make peoples’ lives better.

Representative Steve Southerland, who leads the Republican Study Committee’s anti-poverty initiative, will introduce an amendment to the Agriculture appropriations bill later this week that would move SNAP along the path we charted with welfare reform. His legislation would give states the option to implement strengthened work requirements for SNAP. Under this plan, states could ask SNAP recipients either to find employment or to do things like job training or studying to get a GED.
If states were successful at moving people from food stamps to work and independence, Rep. Southerland’s bill would give them 50% of the savings.

As a candidate for president in 2008, Mr. Obama told Pastor Rick Warren at Saddleback Church that “we have to have work as a centerpiece of any social policy, not only because ultimately people who work are going to get more income, but because [of] the intrinsic dignity of work, the sense of purpose … .”

Rep. Southerland’s SNAP legislation is a chance for President Obama and Democrats in the Congress to prove that they really believe it.

 

• 

Gov. Gary Johnson on Scandals: Politicians need to look in the mirror!

FYI - From Rob Nikolewski/NewMexicoWatchdog.org and Gov. Gary Johnson.

#LiveFree

#PushBack

#ProgressiveLibertarian

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"



Gary Johnson on scandals: Don’t let Obama (or Congress) off the hook By Rob Nikolewski

(In light of the recent scandals involving the IRS targeting conservative groups and the Obama administration’s Justice Department seizing phone records from journalists, New Mexico Watchdog asked former two-term governor of New Mexico and 2012 Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson to offer his opinion on the controversies. Here’s Gov. Johnson’s response:)

 

By Gary Johnson │ Special to New Mexico Watchdog

 

For the past couple of weeks, the politicians in Washington, DC, have been engaged in their beloved sport of chasing “scandals.”

 

First, they were handed the gift of an Internal Revenue Service admission that certain non-profit organizations have been singled out for outrageous degrees of scrutiny and harassment.

“POLITICIANS NEED TO LOOK IN THE MIRROR:” Former Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson speaks out on recent Capitol Hill scandals.

 

And almost simultaneously, it came to light that the Department of Justice has been secretly spying on journalists — obtaining phone records, reading emails, and even tracking some of those journalists’ movements.

Congress is holding hearings as fast as they can schedule them, and the demands for “heads to roll” are growing every day.

 

Let me be clear: I don’t disagree that IRS harassment — targeted or otherwise — is scandalous. Nor do I disagree that it is, indeed, chilling that our government is spying on journalists. I certainly agree that heads should roll.

 

But … while the frenzy over these scandals is perhaps appropriate, we cannot let Congress and the politicians off the hook as they stumble over one another trying to get in front of the TV cameras.

 

The IRS did not appear out of nowhere. It is entirely a creation of decades of law-making and special interest politics that have produced a federal monster with almost 100,000 employees armed with 74,000 pages of rules and regulations. What do those regulations do? They enforce laws designed with remarkable elegance to reward, punish or manipulate almost every aspect of our lives and businesses.

 

It is not even a little shocking that a government given that much power and that many tools will abuse that power. If a parent hands a teenager the keys to a car with a case of beer in the back seat, should that parent be outraged when the kid gets a DUI or hurts himself or someone else?

 

Don’t forget. It was President Obama who stood before Congress in a State of the Union speech and decried the unfettered influence of non-profit advocacy groups. Now, he is flabbergasted that his 100,000 person IRS is making life difficult for some of those same groups.

 

The same goes for the “shocking” revelations that the Department of Justice is secretly obtaining citizens’ phone records, emails, and other personal information. Yes, when they do it to journalists, the stakes are raised a bit and legitimate concerns about the First Amendment come into play. But when we see members of Congress and Senators expressing their outrage, shouldn’t we be asking if they voted for the Patriot Act or any of the other laws that authorized DOJ to go forth and do those outrageous things?

 

In the frantic post 9/11 rush to “protect” us, both the Administration and Congress enacted laws and issued directives that, in a nutshell, said: “Do whatever you have to do, even if it means trampling on a few of the very rights we are supposed to be preserving.” Yes, at that painful juncture, a great many Americans were OK with that. But today, we are still living with those decisions — and those same politicians are somehow surprised that the behemoth they created is getting out of hand?

Perhaps Congress and all the outraged politicians should take a step back from the TV cameras and find a mirror. Raking bureaucrats over the coals when something goes awry is easy.

 

The hard part is facing the reality that those bureaucrats didn’t create the bloated government and the over-reaching authority that not only allows, but encourages, abuse.

 

If they truly need scapegoats, the mirror is the place to look.

 

(Gary Johnson is the Honorary Chairman of the Our America Initiative.)

Act For America: Benghazi Hearings Part 2.

FYI - From Act For America and YouTube.com.

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Act For America: Benghazi Whistleblower Hearnings.

FYI - From Act For America/YouTube.com.

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Obama To Grads: Reject Voices That Warn About Government Tyranny.

FYI - From Gov. Gary Johnson/Our America Initiative.

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

 

Our America Initiative  Obama To Grads: Reject Voices That Warn About Government  Tyranny Tuesday, May 7, 2013      Friends,   This past Sunday, President Obama told graduates of Ohio State University to “reject” voices that warn of government tyranny.     What an incredible statement for a President of the United States to make!   In Federalist Paper 47, James Madison told us: “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of TYRANNY.”   I’m with James Madison on this one, and I am proud to be one of those voices Obama wants Americans to reject.  And I am proud to be the Honorary Chairman of an organization, the Our America Initiative, that exists to push back against government policies that threaten the very same liberties, freedoms and rights that the Founders fought so hard to preserve.   I don’t know about the students at Ohio State, but the hundreds of students at the nine colleges and universities I visited over the past few weeks -- from Ohio to Colorado -- are definitely NOT rejecting warnings about a government that has grown too large, that is eroding their civil liberties at every opportunity, and saddling them with unimaginable  debt. In fact, the students I talked with are not only heeding warnings about modern-day tyranny, but they are ready to go to work defending against it.   Whether it is the smothering cost of government-run health care that I discussed with Neil Cavuto on Fox Business last week or the dangerous notion that laws such as the Patriot Act and the NDAA are needed to “protect” us, the philosophy of government that President Obama and far too many other politicians of both major parties espouse is, indeed, the tyranny Madison described. And sorry, Mr. President, THAT is what must be rejected.   From Fox News and the Washington Times  to campuses across the nation to gatherings in Washington, DC, and New York, I have spent the past several weeks taking the message of liberty to everyone who will listen. And they ARE listening. Americans are ready to see liberty restored as the real traditional value.     Our tremendously successful campus rallies, my appearances on networks from Fox to Russia TV, and interviews with outlets from  Real Clear Politics to the Huffington Post are all made possible by the Our America Initiative -- and more importantly, by your support of our efforts.   President Obama may want Americans to “reject” us, but I can assure you that we will NOT be rejected.  Go to OurAmericaInitiative.com today and make a contribution that will let us continue to “warn of government tyranny.”  America needs to be warned, and with your support of Our America, we WILL be heard!   Thank you for all you do, and for your friendship.  These are critical times, and ours is a critical task.   Sincerely,   Gov. Gary Johnson   Honorary Chairman   Our America Initiative   The OUR America Initiative is a 501(c)(4) political advocacy committee and may receive unlimited donations from both individual and corporate donors. Our America Initiative PO Box 1985 Salt Lake City, UT 84110-1985  OurAmericaInitiative.com

Billionaire Bankster Breaks Into Obama's Cabinet.

FYI - From Greg Palast/GregPalast.com.

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Billionaire Bankster Breaks into Obama's Cabinet By Greg Palast  Thursday, 2. May 2013 You made fun of me when I suggested that President Barack Obama would nominate a confessed bank scammer, a loan-sharking mortgage predator, to his cabinet.  But thar she blows! Today, Obama has named Penny Pritzker Secretary of Commerce. As the President says, It’s a milestone:  the first female fraudster to hold that post. No longer will criminal bankers have to lobby the administration - because now they'll have one of their own in the Cabinet.      The following is taken from the Chapter, “Penny’s from Heaven?” you’ll find in my bestseller, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits.  [Get a copy, I’ll sign it, and you send it to the President.] We never heard of this guy Barack Obama until 2004. Less than three years before taking the presidency, he was in the Illinois state senate, a swamp of scammers, backhanders, and party machine tools - not a stellar launch pad for the White House. And then, one day, state Sen. Barack Obama was visited by his fairy godmother. Her name is Penny Pritzker. Pritzker's net worth is listed in Forbes as $1.8 billion, which is one hell of a heavy magic wand in the world of politics. Her wand would have been heavier, and her net worth higher, except that in 2001, the federal government fined her and her family $460 million for the predatory, deceitful, racist tactics and practices of Superior, the bank-and-loan-shark operation she ran on the South Side of Chicago. Superior was the first of the deregulated go-go banks to go bust - at the time, the costliest failure ever. US taxpayers lost nearly half a billion dollars. Superior's depositors lost millions and poor folk in Sen. Obama's South Side district lost their homes. Penny did not like paying $460 million. No, not one bit. What she needed was someone to give her Hope and Change. She hoped someone would change the banking regulators and the Commerce Department so she could get away with this crap. Pritzker introduced Obama, the neophyte state senator, to the Ladies Who Lunch (that's really what they call themselves) on Chicago's Gold Coast. Obama got lunch, gold and better - an introduction to Robert Rubin. Rubin is a former Secretary of the Treasury, former chairman of Goldman Sachs and former co-chairman of Citibank. Even atheists recognized Rubin as the Supreme Deity of Wall Street. Rubin opened the doors to finance industry vaults for Obama. Extraordinarily for a Democrat, Obama in 2008 raised three times as much from bankers as his Republican opponent. This article is based on the chapter Penny's from Heaven? From Palast's New York Times Bestseller Billionaires & Ballot Bandits with comics by Ted Rall. Donate and get a signed copy. So what did Citibank's Rubin get for showering Obama with gold? Obama agreed to take care of Rubin's poodles, Larry Summers and Tim Geithner. They became Obama's first cabinet picks: Summers as Economics Czar and Geithner as his czarina, Secretary of the Treasury. Geithner and Summers were the gents who, under Treasury Secretary Rubin, designed the deregulation of banking. In effect, they had decriminalized the kind of financial flim-flammery that brought the planet to its knees while bringing Rubin, Pritzker and the banksters loads of lucre. So, in 2008, Summers and Geithner were put back in the saddle - Obama's horse but Rubin's saddle. Rubin received more than $100 million from Citigroup, the gargantuan commercial bank/investment bank/casino created by deregulation. It is worth a mention that Rubin's centi-million-dollar payoff went unchallenged by Citi's new owner, the US Treasury, which had put up more than a trillion dollars in loans and guarantees to pull Rubin's creature out of bankruptcy. Rubin rocked, but Penny was pissed off. Pritzker had taken this state senator/community organizer from the ghetto, made him a US Senator, then, as Obama's campaign finance chairwoman, raised a mind-blowing three-quarters of a billion dollars to make him president. In return, in 2008, Obama decided to make his patron Penny the Secretary of Commerce. But then, in November 2008, just as Obama was about to submit her nomination to Congress, a bunch of Pritzker's victims marched on Washington. They were not from her busted bank, but unhappy workers from the lucrative nursing homes that her family owns through a string of complex offshore trusts. Obama slammed the door on Penny pronto. The Pritzker family made its billions mostly from Hyatt Hotels and Hyatt nursing homes. Penny, on the Hyatt board of directors, is an infamously combative anti-union apostle. UNITE HERE, the union that represents Hyatt workers, has called for an international boycott of Hyatt hotels. In 2012, UNITE HERE and its parent, the AFL-CIO, were crucial to Obama's winning Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin. So, in this last campaign, Obama had to keep his billionairess heiress on the down-low. Obama appeared to keep the door shut on Pritzker throughout the 2012 campaign, reducing her to hosting an election fundraiser at her Gold Coast digs, which she had to bill as a Goldman Sachs PAC event. This marks possibly the first time and last time anyone used Goldman Sachs as a PR cover. But today, with the unions' money and votes already pocketed and counted, Obama can give working folks The Finger and give Penny her pound of flesh: the Commerce post. The New York Times says that, "At Commerce, Ms. Pritzker could provide the president with a new way to reach out to the business community." The last time Pritzker reached out to the business community was to sell them sub-prime mortgage securities, worthless bags of financial feces manufactured by Superior Bank. By giving Penny, the Piggy Banker, Commerce, we have to change Obama's rating to sub-prime. I do note that some woman’s organizations are applauding the appointment of the first female to the Commerce post.  But I prefer to honor the victims of the Chicago femme fatale.  Most of Penny’s victims, busted bank borrowers and underpaid health care workers, are women, too. But, unlike those wounded and destroyed by Pritzker, she worked hard for her money: it was not easy inheriting her first billion from her daddy.

Greg Palast earned his degree in finance at the University of Chicago but has since gone legit.  View his reports for BBC Television, Vice Magazine and more at www.GregPalast.com. Palast is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Armed Madhouse and the highly acclaimed Vultures' Picnic, named Book of the Year 2012 on BBC Newsnight Review. Visit the Palast Investigative Fund's store or simply make a contribution to keep our work alive! For media requests contact us.  Follow Palast on Twitter | Like Palast on Facebook | Forward to a friend  Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter | Podcasts Share this with Copyright © 2013 Greg Palast, All rights reserved. You are receiving this Newsletter because you are a subscriber. Our mailing address is: Greg Palast PO Box 90 Greenport, NY 11944

FYI - From The Washington Times and Gov. Gary Johnson.

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

JOHNSON: Sequestration ignores the real spending problem

Entitlement reform is the only way out of the hole.

By Gary E. Johnson

Friday, March 1, 2013    

 

 

To listen to the parade of Obama administration officials warning of civilization-ending consequences from the measly $85 billion in spending “cuts” sequestration will bring, one can only reach one of two conclusions: Either they are just making stuff up to make the cuts as painful as possible, or the federal budget is so out of control that a mere 2.4 percent reduction in projected spending is more than the system can handle.

Frankly, it is both. Absolutely, in their zeal to make Republicans pay the maximum political price for what is actually both parties’ fault, it is almost comical to watch one Cabinet official after another step up to the microphone and tell us that a 2.4 percent reduction (that isn’t really a reduction) will cause airplanes to fall out of the sky, our national defense to be disabled and our children to starve. That game is among the oldest in Washington. Cut the Park Service budget, and suddenly they can’t find the money to keep the Lincoln Memorial or Yellowstone open.

This sideshow is entertaining, but it misses what may be the most important lesson to be learned from this sequester debacle. While there is certainly a heavy dose of Chicken Little falling-sky rhetoric coming out of the bureaucracy, it is probably true that the rather indiscriminate sequester formula is presenting some challenges for some agencies.

How can that be? How many governors, state legislatures, city councils, small businesses and families have had to absorb 2 percent cuts in their budgets over the past five years or so, and have done so because they didn’t have the luxury of simply borrowing or printing more cash? What’s the problem?

The real problem is that so much of the federal budget is not optional. While the $85 billion sequester for this year is only 2.4 percent of the $3.6 trillion the government is projected to spend, let us not overlook the fact that roughly 60 cents of every dollar the government spends is “mandatory,” as in entitlements. An additional 7 cents is interest on the debt. That leaves less than a third of federal spending that can actually be cut, and makes that $85 billion a little more significant.

If “cutting” discretionary spending by a lousy 2 or 3 cents on the dollar is enough to create dire consequences (for the sake of argument), imagine what would happen if we tried to reduce that spending by the 30 cents it will take to balance the budget and stop digging ourselves even deeper into unsustainable debt.

The moral of this ongoing story is clear: We can’t get to a balanced budget without doing some serious work on that 60 percent of spending that is “mandatory,” beginning with the 800-pound gorilla of Medicare. Any politician who claims to want to eliminate deficits but opposes meaningful entitlement reform is simply lying. It can’t be done, and if we needed proof, this sequester mess provides all we need.

In fact, do the rough math, and the only way to balance the budget without addressing mandatory entitlements is to almost shut down the rest of the government. While those of us on the small-government side of things might not be entirely heartbroken by that prospect, we probably need to have the government do some things, like national defense.

If you believe, as most Americans do, that we cannot continue to spend money we don’t have, and if you believe that there are some legitimate roles for government beyond paying Medicare bills and issuing Social Security checks, there is no getting around the simple fact that we have to bring all of that “mandatory” spending into the conversation.
Otherwise, it is just a big lie.

Gov. Gary E. Johnson, governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003 and the Libertarian candidate for president in 2012, is honorary chairman of the Our America Initiative.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/1/sequestration-ignores-the-real-spending-problem/#ixzz2MQzJ41P4
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

Post-Election Online Town Hall With Gov. Gary Johnson

FYI - From GaryJohnson2012.com and Vokle.com.

Broadcast starts at approx. 00:02:49.

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Restore Our Civil Liberties, No War With Iran - My letter to the President.

FYI - My letter to the President.

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

November 14, 2012

The Hon. Barack H. Obama

The White House

1600 Pennslyvania Ave,  NW

Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President,

Good morning.  I hope this letter finds you doing well.  I want to start off by saying congratulations on your reelection.  I wanted to take some time to write to you concerning a couple of different topics.

First, I will admit, I am a former Democrat, turned left leaning (Small "L" libertarian) independent voter.  I did support you in the previous election, but I could not in good faith this time.  Instead,  I voted for Gov. Gary Johnson.  I thought long and hard about this choice, but in the end, I did so over civil liberties and foreign policy.  

I ask that you please restore America's faith in your administration by restoring our civil liberties.  A good start would be to ask Congress to repeal the Patriot Act or pass S. 1686, the Justice Act, that was originally introduced in 2011 by former Senator Russ Feingold.  Also, ask them to amend the National Defense Authorization Act, striking out the Indefinite Detention clause.  

I am a former U.S. Marine and Iraq War veteran.  I'm still serving, now, as a medic in the Army Reserve.  I say that because I care deeply about defending our great nation, and I know that it can be done while still upholding our Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Secondly, I ask that you take a different approach concerning Iran.  Simply, I think that your administration should, as President Kennedy did with the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis, deal directly with the Iranian government. There is really no need for other countries to act as "middle men."  There seems to be a lot of propaganda in the media, and sadly, it looks like we are headed down the same path that we were leading up to war with Iraq.  

In closing, Mr. President, I want to, again, congratulate you on your reelection victory, and thank you for taking the time to read this.  I ask that you consider my suggestions as your new term begins.  Any response is greatly appreciated.

Very respectfully,

Aaron D. Yeargan

Thank You From Gov. Gary Johnson.

FYI - From Gov. Gary Johnson and GaryJohnson2012.com.

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Thank You From Gov. Gary Johnson.

Friends,

The first words I must say to you are THANK YOU.

We made history Tuesday. Thanks to you and thousands of other supporters of real liberty, my running mate, Judge Jim Gray, and I received more votes than any other Libertarian candidates for President and Vice-President in history. Even with the closeness of the contest between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, when all the votes are counted, we will most likely have received 1.2 million votes!

That’s 1.2 million Americans who heard us and voted on the basis of principle over politics. And they did so despite the fact that Romney and Obama spent at least a thousand times more on TV and radio advertising than we did.

Given the outcome Tuesday, which returned the status quo to not only the White House, but also the Congress, we even have supporters already talking proudly of being part of the new “1%” who refused to accept that status quo.

Even more important than Tuesday’s results, with your support, we have built a grassroots organization nationwide that is truly the foundation for carrying our message of individual freedom, small government and non-intervention forward in a big way. Tuesday was not the end. It is the beginning.

We have identified hundreds of thousands of liberty–minded Americans. We have connected with more than a million people on Google+, 300,000 fans on Facebook, and more than 100,000 followers on Twitter. And over the past few days–before and after Tuesday, “Who is Gary Johnson?” was one of the most “searched” phrases on the Internet.

NONE of that has happened without your help. Your time, your energy, and your contributions have placed Liberty squarely on the national stage, and with all signs pointing to a continuation of big government, small liberty policies in Washington DC, the NEED for Liberty to be on that stage will never be greater than in the months ahead.

I am taking a couple of days to recharge my batteries in New Mexico and, frankly, attend to some chores at home — and then I will be picking up the bullhorn again. We already have major national interviews scheduled for next week, and fully intend to use the foundation we have built to make sure we are heard in the critical policy debates that are already raging in the wake of Tuesday’s election.

The “fiscal cliff”, Internet regulation, and of course, events in the Middle East are all going to be dealt with in the weeks ahead – by the status quo government that was reelected Tuesday. It is critical that we not sit on the sidelines.

To make sure we ARE heard going forward, there is much we need to do. We have to pay the final bills for all the work we did leading up to the election. We have a tremendous amount of data collection and list organization to do. We need to update our website and social media pages. And of course, I will be traveling the country to give voice to Liberty. All those tasks, and many more, require funding.

I really want you to be a part of what we will be doing over the next few weeks, and I hope you will go to GaryJohnson2012.com and help make sure we have the funding we need. What we have accomplished with the amount of money we have spent – compared to the so-called “major” party candidates – is nothing short of remarkable. And we are committed to carrying this work forward until the status quo strangle-hold is broken.

Tuesday’s election created a great opportunity for us. Being part of the “1%” that didn’t settle for the lesser of evils or the renewal of the status quo is soon to be a badge we can wear with pride, and more importantly, the foundation for a movement that America desperately needs.

You’ve been with me this far, and I sincerely hope I have earned your support as we look ahead. We have a lot of work to do, and I need your help.

Please go to GaryJohnson2012.com today and make the contribution that will let us take advantage of the amazing opportunities we have created!

Words cannot capture my gratitude for all you have done, for your friendship, and for your dedication to a cause that is REALLY important. We have an exciting future – so let’s get to it!

Sincerely,

Gov. Gary Johnson

The Day After - The Fight Continues!

It's cold and raining here in the great state of Tennessee as I have my morning coffee and reflect on yesterday's presidential election.  What I realize is that, while the President won by an impressive amount of electoral votes, the popular vote shows that the race was much, much closer - about 50% to 49%.  The President garnered approximately 59 million votes, while Gov. Romney  approximately 57 million.

And, something I am extremely happy about, well over one million people voted for my candidate, Gov. Gary Johnson.  This is more votes than any other Libertarian candidate in history!  I honestly believe that this number would have been even higher if more people would have voted their conscience.

What all of this really tells me is that the majority of Americans are still unhappy with the direction that this country is going in, and the R3VOLUTION must continue!  We must stay vigilant,  always pushing against the establishment and status quo, in the name of liberty! We must continue to fight for our civil liberties, peace, and fiscal responsibility.  We must Reclaim the Republic and Restore the Constitution for ourselves and future generations!

I ask for your help in this endeavor as we look to 2016.

LIVE FREE,
Aaron Yeargan
-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"