US Navy And Taxed Out of Shipping

Sometimes, it's the unnoted things in a news story that provide the most insight. Sometimes timing of an event provides the greatest irony. Four solitary pirates have tested the world's superpower and the new leader. Twenty great Americans demonstrated resolve and valor. One ship's captain has gone above and beyond.

And Vice President Biden's prophecy is on the verge of being proven, again. When tested, President Obama has consistently fallen short. But he cannot continue on a course of economic and military destruction without the willing approval of Congress.

And Congress cannot rubber stamp the wrong headed policies of the executive without the Whipped Blue Dogs, including our very own Representative Gordon, who only seems to represent earmarks and Washington insiders.



The US Navy has already been cut in half, primarily in the 90's. The New Administration aims to cut it even more. Reprehensible Barney Frank called for the cuts in October. Reprehensible Murtha called for the cuts this year. The 2010 DoD budget proposal from the Administration hides the cuts by adding the costs of Our Current Conflicts to the regular budget without increasing the actual budget. It is an $87+ Billion cut in defense spending from its own 2009 proposal.

Instead of spending money Constitutionally on the Common Defense of the States, the Administration is funding ACORN, Planned Parenthood, and buying US Corporations. The Whipped Blue Dogs are following the whims of Pelosi, Reid, Frank, and Obama.

But this is only part of the story. They are calling for higher taxes on investors, smokers, corporations, and employers. And this too has a tie to the piracy of the Maersk Alabama. With the first case of piracy against a US Flagged vessel in two centuries, we also see the results of increased tax and regulations on one of our traditionally strongest industries:

"There are fewer than 200 U.S.-flagged vessels in international waters, said Larry Howard, chair of the Global Business and Transportation Department at UNY Maritime College in New York. " AP, APR 08, 2009 US Aid Ship Fights off Pirates

The only US Flagged vessels on the high seas today are US Navy Vessels and those required by US Government contract to be US Flagged. Taxes and Regulations have made it simply too expensive for shipping companies to hoist our Flag. Instead, shipping companies flag their ships in places like Kuwait and Liberia, which collect the fees and regulate more sensibly or not at all while providing no protection of their own.

When the US Government continues to increase taxes on our employers, they will continue to move overseas, continue to lay off Our Workers, and more of our great industries will be lost to foreign nations. We must send a Common Sense Citizen to represent Tennesseans in 2010.

While David Evans has correctly called on Representative Gordon to return the money the US Government paid for Gordon's personal European Vacation (or demonstrate it was official business), I am focused on the Billions and Trillions of dollars the Whipped Blue Dogs are wasting of Our money.

While General Evans is concerned with the personal largesse of our opponent, I am concerned with Representative Gordons willingness to undercut Our National Defense in a time of Two Wars and even greater threat than we have seen since 1990.

Tennessee Taylor©2009, TNT, all rights reserved

Taxes For Condoms Or Fighters?

From War On Terror News:

But we are in a time of economic crisis and the far left of the DNC: Frank and
Murtha are calling for cuts in Military Spending to the tune of 25% while the
President himself looks more moderate in his calls for the Joint Chiefs to plan
for cuts of 10%. This sets the stage for current programs to be cut
substantially and has politicians scrambling to ensure the programs in their
states are not cut.

It seems that President Obama and Congress are actually considering throwing 10,000 to 100,000 workers into the unemployment lines by not continuing the funding and acquistion of our National Defense in the form of the F-22 Raptor program. At the same time the Senate is adding Hundreds of Billions in more pork to the Debt Stimulus Bill, in addition to Pelosi's Condom Stimulus stake, they're possibly going to undermine the future defense of our Nation and the economy by ending this program that Aviators and Admirals need. "Ask the Jet-Jockies"

We need the Blue Dog Democrats to join the bi-partisan group which includes even Ted Kennedy in calling for this and all Defense to be funded.

To get the numbers straight from those most committed to saving this program and
send a message to YOUR politicians to get on board with preserving this program, you can visit this site, which has letters ready to send out to all that need to hear from you.

It is near criminal that Our Politicians continue to ignore the will of the people as well as their Constitutional duties to defend this Nation while adding 10-20% to the National Debt in 12 short months, for CEO Bailouts, UAW Bailouts, and Condom Stimulation programs. The Debt Stimulus Bill has become the greatest pork project of the Congressional Record.

But be sure to look around the internet, at what other Veterans are saying and noticing about the new Congress and The Party in Power.

Stimulating the National Debt

It has been proven many times over that when one party controls both the Congress and the Executive that spending increases. Never in our history have we seen spending go so completely out of control so quickly as to prove this so quickly. The 111th Congress has moved quickly to establish its partisanship and Speaker Pelosi continues to whip the Beaten Blue Dogs into line.

The media has picked up on my analogy of Congress as College Kids spending on their parents credit cards. Without factoring in the Stimulus Plan, the deficit is already expected to break records in 2009. We're seeing the effects of the CEO Bailout, the UAW Bailout, combined with "run of the mill" out of control spending already:

WASHINGTON – The Treasury Department said Monday it will need to borrow $493 billion in the first three months of this year, a record amount for the January-March period.
The Treasury Department figure comes on top of $569 billion the government borrowed from October through December, the all-time high for any quarter. AP 2009 Feb 02

To give you some perspective, we had to borrow money to force taxpayers to buy into banks we didn't want to pay those Billions in bonuses to the CEO's already. The $1.062 Trillion we will have borrowed in the first six months is already more than any other deficit in our Nation's History. And this does not include the stimulus package.

The Debt Stimulus package is approximately $5,600 PER taxpayer, all debt, all the time. Or about $2,730 PER American, including each of those new octuplets recently born, all debt, before interest.

Both the Stimulus Package and the CEO Bailout Bill are more than we spent in 5+ years of War in Iraq, by hundreds of billions EACH. Both are greater than the largest single budget item: Social Security which sits at $644 Billion. The Debt Stimulus package is 3.15 times what we pay in interest on the debt already accrued.

The Government estimates it will collect only $2.7 Trillion this year and has already approved spending $3.1 Trillion before the Stimulus and before the UAW Bailout and before the CEO Bailout. In fact, the 3 supplemental spending bills will be more than 3x what the deficit already was budgeted for in 2009. And we borrowed more in the first quarter of the fiscal year as was budgeted to borrow for the entire year. We will borrow more in the second quarter of the fiscal year than was budgeted for the entire year, before the Debt Stimulus package.

One is forced to wonder if The Party (DNC) is purposely attempting to bankrupt the Federal Government.

On the other hand, an economic stimulus package is needed, not an $819 Billion pork spending package. Increased spending on condoms should be left to individuals, not the Federal Government. We need to prioritize our spending but cutting the Military during a time of War is not the answer. Whether Murtha and Frank get their 25% or Obama cuts the DoD by 10%, this will cost jobs, not increase them. It will put more people on the unemployment rolls.

Obama promised to fully support the Troops in his first visit to the Pentagon and again in his Superbowl message to Troops:

“All of you who are serving in the U.S. armed forces are going to have my full
support, and one of my duties as president is going to be to make sure that you
have what you need to accomplish your missions,” he said.

That is not accomplished by cutting the DoD budget as he told the Joint Chiefs to plan for during the same visit. Politicians are paid to decide the ratio of spending on bullets to beans, but instead Our Congressmen are choosing to buy condoms. Somehow, I don't think Trojan is in trouble.

So long as Speaker Pelosi can keep the "moderates" in line, she has no need to cross the aisle. Sadly, Our Representative is toeing her line. The Party (DNC) has absolute power and she is expressing the CA Idealists ways.

Mike Huckabee noted on his new Fox Show that $1 Trillion dollars would buy Microsoft, Google, Apple, Coca-Cola, and Pepsi all and completely. Glen Beck showed us a chart that demonstrated the new Treasury Secretary's plan to print more money. I haven't found a source for his numbers, but if they are accurate, it would appear that soon everything will be worth half of what it currently is.

I fully expect that the Debt Stimulus Bill will pass and be signed by President Obama. It will have made it to his desk with Representative Gordon's vote, at least in the first round. There will likely be a second round after the Senate gets done with it but it's unlikely to have the fat trimmed off of it. The last time, the Senate merely increased the fat (CEO Bailout Bill).

And the UAW Bailout Bill saved no jobs either. The Auto Companies still cut back on parts orders and production, despite the $17 Billion. They did so, because Americans aren't buying their cars and padding the wages of the 70k/year UAW members only increases their ability to buy a new car on the backs of their customers who still can't afford their product.

Their pleas to save the jobs of waitresses paid in tips by auto parts supplier's workers were nothing more than marketing and advertising for their own overpaid salaries.

So, if the Debt Stimulus package passes, who will first see the recovery? Other than Trojan, construction companies. Not the homebuilders, the commercial and industrial companies. A portion of the bill is dedicated to infrastructure improvements and school construction. It will have an effect, but not the effect that should be expected by $819 Billion, because too much is dedicated to programs that have no business being included in "economic stimulus."

Perhaps it's time for our Congressmen to cut their own salaries back to the $1/year they have demanded of CEO's, until they can get their spending under control.

Defense Cuts? In a Time of War?

The Party is showing its true colors. The far left is demanding their pound of flesh for hiding those colors long enough to get The Party elected.

The left leaning Center for American Progress released a blueprint for defense policy and force plans for the incoming Obama administration. The report calls defense spending "out of control" and calls for big cuts in weapons programs. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dodbuzz/~3/482001456/

And Reprehensible Murtha is leading the way:

Powerful Pennsylvania congressman Jack Murtha, chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, said the Pentagon must prepare for smaller budgets and that potential spending cuts will likely come from the personnel side.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dodbuzz/~3/480996310/

We need a strong Representative to stand up to these far left members of The Party. The DNC has been taken over by the extreme; the Idealists of California, the Elitists of New York, and the Corrupt of Chicago. Murtha has demonstrated his disdain for small town America and for the Military, while clinging to his veteran status. He has forgotten whatever values the Marines managed to teach him.

But he is not the first of The Party to call for cuts to the Military in a Time of War. Reprehensible Frank led the charge before him, before the elections, before we sent him the support he needs to push it through, back to Congress.

" NEW BEDFORD — After the November election, Democrats will push for a second economic stimulus package that includes money for the states' stalled
infrastructure projects, along with help paying for healthcare expenses, food stamps and extended unemployment benefits, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said Thursday.

In a meeting with the editorial board of The Standard-Times, Rep. Frank, D-Mass., also called for a 25 percent cut in military spending, saying the Pentagon has to start choosing from its many weapons programs, and that upper-income taxpayers are going to see an increase in what they are asked to pay."
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081024/NEWS/810240332/-1/NEWS10

But these members of the extreme left wing cannot push through these measures without the support of The Party members, such as the Blue Dog Democrats, like Rep. Gordon.

I served in the Military during the Clinton years and I entered while there were still significant Veterans serving from the Carter years. I know how bad things were during those times. I, at times, spent my paycheck to buy equipment needed but not available because of budget cuts. Rucksacks and, even camouflage face paint, were simply unavailable. Training was cut back significantly. I fear the next four years will be worse, if we don't have a Representative willing to stand up to the extremes of The Party.

Clinton and Carter presided over a different time though. It was the perception of the Nation that we were not at war. It was perceived that the world was a safer place and we could make cuts in Defense. They cut it too far and they forced the Military to spend the money they did give on the wrong things. So, when Clinton called on the Military, they didn't have the tools they needed.

And when 9/11 was thrust upon us, when we finally no longer had the option of ignoring terrorism, Our Military did not have body armor, did not have armored HumVees, and faced an uphill battle. It took years to recover to the level of readiness required to win.

But we are at war now. We are spending less of our GDP on the Military now than we did when we won the Cold War. We have a smaller military, doing everything that is asked of them, no matter how stretched they are, no matter how great the sacrifice asked of them. This is not the time to cut personnel and equipment for the Military to do that job.

If there is one thing that the Federal Government is tasked to do, it is to provide for the United Defense of the States.

Representative Gordon: as a Veteran, as an American, as a Citizen, you must oppose this movement from within The Party. Our Congress can not return to pre-9/11 head in the sand mentalities. We are watching. The Common Sense Citizens of Middle Tennessee will not stand for putting Our Troops in the Unemployment lines while you try to salvage UAW salaries. We can not allow Our Military to be cut at the very time they are stretched thin, while they defend our freedoms in the deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq, while Murtha and Frank attack the good people of the small towns and the Marines that defend them.

Tennessee Taylor©2008, TNT, all rights reserved.