The Obama Legacy

The following information came to me from Dale Doepker. Thanks, Dale!

winteryknight.wordpress.com

foxnewsinsider.com

MyGovCost.org

hyscience.com

intellectualtakeout.org

westernfreepress.com

mommylife.net

Chinatown in Works Near Ann Arbor

from the Detroit News
Milan Township— Southeast Michigan may become home to a veritable Chinatown, a planned community of 415 upscale homes for Chinese immigrants, off U.S. 23 south of Ann Arbor. The idea behind the proposal is to encourage Chinese investors to open businesses here and take advantage of in-state tuition at the University of Michigan, saving tens of thousands of dollars per student. Read story here.

220 acres of land were purchased for the project by a Chinese firm...they paid $1.9 million in cash.

GM: Becoming China Motors?

The taxpayers of the United States bailed out General Motors. Today, GM is becoming a largely Chinese corporation.

• 70% of all GM cars are now manufactured outside the United States, mostly in China.
• GM has partnered with the Communist Party of China to sponsor a propaganda film called "Birth of a Party."
• China is purchasing large segments of manufacturing and energy in the United States.
• Nexteer, a joint venture between China and GM in Saginaw, Michigan, is owned by AVIC, a Chinese manufacturer of military aerospace technology, including advanced missles.

Get all the details in this 9-minute video. It is worth your time to watch.


P.S. I have no quarrel with any corporation expanding and doing business overseas. What I think is of concern is that American taxpayers bailed out this corporation and now they are "in bed" with a Communist country that is using American technology and potentially transferring it to Chinese military hardware development. That is something to be deeply concerned about.

Debbie DeBacker Launches Campaign for House

Troy, MI - Long time community activist and CPA Deborah DeBacker will be officially kicking off her campaign for state representative on Monday May 14th at Marinelli’s in Troy at 6:30pm. DeBacker and her husband Tom have been residents of Troy and Clawson for over 34 years and have raised three grown sons. An active member of the Republican Party, DeBacker will be seeking her party’s nomination for the 41st House District in the August 7th primary election.

A proven champion of the taxpayer, DeBacker pledges to bring her conservative values to Lansing to restore our economy, reduce wasteful spending and restore families. “Decades of working as an elected Republican leader and conservative grassroots activist for lower taxes, fiscal restraint and traditional values makes me the best qualified choice for state representative. Just as I am your voice in our community, I will be your voice in Lansing,” said DeBacker. She is also a Board Member of the Troy Youth Assistance Program.

DeBacker has been endorsed by prominent conservative leaders like Rocky Raczkowski and State Representative Tom McMillin, both of whom will speak in support of her campaign at the May 14th event. County Commissioner Robert Gosselin, former State Representative from Troy, also endorses DeBacker along with the majority of Republican Precinct Delegates in the 41st House District.

To learn more about Deborah DeBacker’s campaign visit www.deborahdebacker.com. Contact Deborah at debackerdeb@gmail.com or by phone at 248-641-7066.



Governor Signs Bills Expanding Public Education Choices



from WOOD-TV

LANSING, MI – State students will have more opportunities to attend “cyber” charter schools after Gov. Rick Snyder adds his signature to a bill, a moved planned for Tuesday, according to his staff.

Snyder also plans to sign a package of bills expanding programs that allow students to gain college credit while attending high school. Read full story here.

Rick Snyder is showing his experience as a guy who worked in the free marketplace, competing for customers. He understands that even in a "public" setting like education, a little competition can be a very good thing. He is not afraid to side with advocates of choice in education because he understands that it will result in better quality, more cost-effective education options for all of Michigan's children.

Congratulations Governor!

Where Are The Jobs? How Do We Get Them Back

There is not a politician running for office who isn't "fighting for jobs." We hear this mantra ad nauseum. But, how do we get the jobs back? And what is causing the anemic growth of jobs in America? (Actually, we are losing jobs as a percentage of working age Americans grows.)

What is the greatest cause of  job losses today? Rand Paul sums it up pretty nicely in his "Platform to Revitalize America." It is his budget proposal for FY 2013. It's pretty simple. As government grows and spends, it pulls available capital out of the market. On page 12, he says the following:

"As deficits and debts continue to increase, America’s ability to finance both a growing debt and private investments diminish. With more of the country’s capital and savings allocated into government securities, less money will be available for investment in the private sector, which will lead to a smaller capital stock and lower output and incomes in the long-run than if the debt was reduced.

In addition, as this growing debt increasingly becomes financed by capital inflows from other countries (foreigners currently own nearly 45 percent of total debt held by the public, see Appendix Figure 4), the debt service will require more and more U.S. capital to flow to countries such as China, Japan, oil exporting countries, and other foreign nations. Such a trend will continue to weaken economic growth and hurt the standard-of-living in the long-run. Without private investment in new factories, research and development, and innovative expansion, the economy will be stymied from the lack of increasing productivity growth and new job creation.

How Conservative is Your Congressman



photo by Scott Harmsen - Gazette

One great way to get a snapshot of where your representatives are on the issues is to look at the various report cards that are published by liberal and conservative groups alike. One of the "gold standards" of conservative rating is the Heritage Action Scorecard. Heritage updates the report weekly.

photo by Maria Straatsma

They have pretty strict standards. In fact, nobody has achieved a 100% score. Two Senators are as high as 99% and three Congressmen are at 98%. How is the Michigan delegation doing? The highest scoring Republican is Justin Amash at 94%; the lowest is Fred Upton at 48%. The highest score among the Democrats from Michigan is Hansen Clarke at 16% and the lowest is John Dingell at 8%. Our two Senators, Levin and Stabenow weigh in at 9% and 6% respectively. See all the scores here.

Thank You Seal Team Six. We Will Never Know Your Names

How Serious is Our Budget Situation?

Here is one man's opinion. It "ain't" pretty.

Important Consumer Product Safety Announcement

Please watch this five-minute video. It may save your life!

Workforce Down by 169,000 Last Month

The Obama Administration is claiming the unemployment is continuing to drop. The 8.1% rate does not take into account the 522,000 additional Americans who gave up looking in April and are no longer being counted. Read more here.

Illegal Immigrants Claim $4 Billion in Child Tax Credits

WTHR, Channel 13, Indianapolis filed a revealing report on how illegal immigrants are claiming child tax credits for "dependent children" who are nieces and nephews and who do not live in the United States. The IRS is paying up to the tune of over $4 billion. Watch here.

Who Would Oppose the Violence Against Women Act?

This is typical Democrat strategy. Take an issue that can be used to greatly expand federal power and cater to the extreme left, give it a name that sounds all warm and fuzzy, introduce the bill, and then watch as "conservative Republicans" get all soft and squishy and support the bad legislation.

This is exactly what the Violence Against Women Act, (S. 1925) is all about. It is bad legislation. First of all, it addresses an issue that belongs explicitly to the states and/or local government. As James Madison said in Federalist 45: "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State."

And as the Cato Institute clearly explained: "...the Constitution specifically authorizes federal enforcement of only three types of laws, all of which involve uniquely federal concerns.” Those three types of criminal laws are laws to prevent counterfeiting, piracy and treason. Combating violent crime of any kind is the purview of the many states and other territories."

So, even if they liked what was in it, Congress should not be voting on it. But, even if it was constitutional, The Heritage Foundation’s David Muhlhausen and Christina Villegas note that the bill is fundamentally flawed, or politically motivated in several ways:

• It expands VAWA to men and prisoners, despite the lack of scientifically rigorous evaluations to determine the effectiveness of existing VAWA programs
• It expands the already duplicative VAWA grant programs
• Without precedent, it surrenders the rights of non-native Americans to racially exclusive tribal courts
• It would offer VAWA protection and aid to victims of violence in same-sex couples. In other words, the Violence Against Women Act would protect a man harmed by another man, but only if they are in a sexual relationship

So, what you have here, is an unconstitutional bill that will add a great deal of cost, treat people differently, and has clear political motivations in it. Or as Muhlhausen and Villegas summarized,
"Using federal agencies and grant programs to fund the routine operations of domestic violence programs that state and local governments themselves could provide is a misuse of federal resources and a distraction from concerns that truly are the province of the federal government. Simply expanding this framework with extensive new provisions and programs that have been inadequately assessed is likely to facilitate waste, fraud, and abuse and will not better protect women or victims of violence generally."

No constitution-honoring legislator would vote for this terribly flawed bill.

Material for this blog came from Townhall.com and Heritage.org

Abortion Coercion Bills Headed to Full Michigan Senate

One of Margaret O'Brien's campaign pledges as a candidate for House of Representatives was the protection of human life and dignity. As part of a fulfillment of that pledge, she has sponsored one of a package of bills that will protect young pregnant women from being coerced into an abortion.

As a former Crisis Pregnancy Center director, who's office was located across the street from a Planned Parenthood abortion center, I can tell you firsthand, coercion of pregnant women is a problem. Too often these high school or college-aged women are scared and without any moral or financial support. They are easily misinformed and misled into a decision they regret for years to come.

I applaud Rep. O'Brien and her colleagues for moving this package of bills forward and encourage Governor Snyder to sign the legislation when it arrives on his desk. Read more here.

Let 'em Pray

Why the dust-up over a caucus of believers who want to pray together? I was in the legislature for six years and during that time there was a group of lawmakers who would meet once a week simply to pray for each other and for Divine guidance on our legislative actions. That group included Republicans and Democrats. I know there was also a group of Catholics who gathered every morning when the House was in session, simply to seek direction and blessing.

This is a free country where any group of individuals who share a common faith may gather. Muslims, Jews, Christians, and other groups that profess a certain religious affiliation gather for purposes of common prayer or encouragement all the time. They are not, and should not be interfered with by government or any other group that disagrees with their belief system.

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) is now making a fuss over a group of legislators who want to pray together. Why? Because they profess Christianity?

As long as this group is not in any way funded or subsidized by tax dollars, an I am sure they are not, then I say, let them pray. As a former lawmaker, I can tell you, those guys in Lansing need all the Divine inspiration and guidance they can get, and I am sure they will tell you the same thing. Learn more about the Legislative Prayer Caucus here.

Electric Car?

Obama: First,Take Over Education, Then Track Your Kid's Progress

Last year, the Obama administration asked states to adopt a set of “Common Core” national standards in K-12 language arts and mathematics...The Common Core standards represent a potentially enormous change in who controls what millions of public school students are taught...read more.

Would it bother you to know that...the federal Department of Education and Department of Labor scrutinized your son’s academic performance to see if he should be “encouraged” to leave high school early to learn a trade? Would you think the government was intruding on your territory as a parent?

Under regulations the Obama Department of Education released this month, these scenarios could become reality. The department has taken a giant step toward creating a de facto national student database that will track students by their personal information from preschool through career. Read more.

Time to Ban Earmarks, the 'Gateway Drug' to Unbridled Spending

from Washington Examiner - Have you noticed the desperate-looking Congressmen wandering around Capitol Hill these days, their faces all contorted in pain as they endure the agony of withdrawal from Federal Spending Addiction?

These poor wretches went into tailspins a couple of years ago when public outrage over the Bridge to Nowhere forced Congress to impose a moratorium on earmarks -- those costly tax-paid favors that congressmen once bestowed upon favored campaign donors, former staff, family members and each other. Read article here.

Seventy-two members of Congress have signed on to an Earmark Ban. Check here to see if your Congressman has signed on, and take action if he hasn't.