Roadblocks Blocking Amnesty

The amnesty bill that the so-called Gang of Eight Members of Congress have been working on in secret is proving to be very costly to U.S. taxpayers. The Senate Budget Committee reported that there is nothing in the plan to comply with the federal law that states that any immigrant is "inadmissible" who is "likely at any time to become a public charge." That's the text of Section 212 of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act. The Gang of Eight appears to be willing to allow those who illegally entered the U.S. to obtain legal residence without demonstrating that they will not become a public charge. So, we can be pretty sure that many will become a public charge. After they get a green card, they will be able to access the 79 federal welfare benefits and anti-poverty programs. The Senate Budget Committee staff estimates that cash and benefits given to these legal residents in the U.S. will cost taxpayers $40 billion a year just for Medicaid and Obamacare. The Heritage Foundation estimates that the net cost of amnesty would eventually top $2 trillion.

Government Employee Unions Robbing Taxpayers

On my Saturday radio talk program, I recently interviewed Mallory Factor, the author of a new book called Shadowbosses. Shadowbosses is a term he invented for government employee unions. We've only had government-employee union in recent years, and they are very different from private sector unions because government employee unions are paid by the taxpayers and the taxpayers are never at the bargaining table. Many government employees are forced to pay union dues in order to get and keep their jobs. Union bosses admit that much of the dues money goes to buy political influence to get what the unions want in pay and benefits. But the government employee unions don't exercise their influence only to increase benefits for their members. These unions are also big players in promoting leftwing and Democratic Party governmental policies of all kinds.

What's Going On in Charter Schools?

Charter schools have opened up a path for foreigners to run schools at the expense of U.S. taxpayers, mostly without news coverage. A Turkish group, called the Gulen Movement, which is headed by a Turkish preacher named Fethullah Gulen, had established a network of schools in 100 other countries. He them opened his first U.S. charter school in 1999. Gulen's schools spread rapidly after he figured out how to work our system and get the U.S. taxpayers to finance his recruitment of followers for his worldwide religious and social movement.

Vermont Court Pierces Sovereign Immunity

Our U.S. legal system came to us from medieval England, where no one could ever sue the King. The American Revolution replaced the King with representative government, but the doctrine of “sovereign immunity” still exists. Government is immune from claims against it, except where authorized by special laws. Trial attorneys would have a field day if they could sue every time government makes a mistake. However, the Vermont Supreme Court just opened the door to suing its state for mistakes.

GAO Gives Commercial Colleges a Failing Grade

The Obama Administration is determined not to cut a penny out of the billions of taxpayer dollars poured into our schools and colleges, even though they can't show any progress toward the designated goals established for the spending of that money. The government has just started to look at some areas of downright fraud in federal spending for education. The Government Accounting Office (GAO) just made a survey of 15 commercial colleges, using undercover investigators, and discovered a big variety of fraud, cheating and downright dishonesty.

Taxpayers are Paying for Foreign Schools

The charter school movement was presented to the American people as a way to have more parental control of public school education. Charter schools are public schools financed by local taxpayers plus generous federal grants. But the people running charter schools are able to hire and fire teachers, administrators and staff and avoid control by education department bureaucrats. No doubt there are some good charter schools, but the loose controls have allowed another kind of school to emerge.

More Education Not the Key to Jobs

Many members of the Obama Administration are singing the false tune that more federal spending on public schools and colleges is the key to more jobs. Domestic Policy Adviser Melody Barnes used a stream of buzzwords: education is the "key to winning the future" and we must "out-educate the world." Vice President Joe Biden chimed in by launching his "College Completion Tool Kit," a bunch of expensive suggestions to increase the number of college graduates by 50%. He wants to shift the focus of government spending from high school completion to college completion. Biden was the lead speaker at a conference called "The First Annual Building a Grad Nation Summit" held in Washington in March. His plan sets forth vague goals such as developing an action plan, accelerating learning, and concealing the fact that many students who are now admitted to college can't do college work and must take "remedial" courses.

Controversial Arizona Immigration Laws

The new Arizona immigration law has really stirred up nationwide controversy, and the big majority of the American people like that law. Similar laws have been introduced in 20 other states.

The Biggest Tax Increase Is Coming Soon

The largest tax hike in history, affecting all taxpayers, will take place at the end of this year when the Republican tax cuts will expire. Starting January 1, 28 million middle Americans will be socked with a massive Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) which George W. Bush had eliminated. That's a "gotcha" which penalizes taxpayers in ways they never expect, adding big tax penalties based on an "alternative" way of calculating taxes due. Upper-income Americans will see a big jump in their marginal tax rates. Their accountants are already telling them that the more they work, the less additional money they will take home, so they may be already slowing down, canceling investments, or retiring to draw Social Security. Hardworking parents who are saving for their children's future will be hit by the reinstatement of the massive "death tax" on January 1. They may wonder why they work hard and save, if their money will go to Uncle Sam and to people who choose not to work.

America's "Unsustainable" Debt

"Unsustainable" is a scary word that recently entered political discourse. It is being used by the Director of the Congressional Budget Office, known as the CBO. Unsustainability is now the label for Barack Obama's massive deficit spending, which the Director said "cannot be solved through minor tinkering." The CBO predicts a increase in our public debt from $7.5 trillion at the end of last year to $20.3 trillion at the end of 2020 if current budgets are implemented. Senator Kent Conrad sharpened the focus by asking the CBO Director: "What's going to be necessary [is] either a 25% increase in taxes or a 20% reduction in spending, or some combination thereof. Is that correct?" The CBO Director answered "yes."

Some Pay and Some Receive

The news that the United States has become a two-class society: half of Americans pay federal income taxes and half don't, has bounced around the media and shocked Americans. Even worse is the reality that 40% of Americans receive federal government handouts of cash and valuable benefits. Those handouts are financed by the people who do pay federal income taxes. Those handouts create a tremendous bloc of people who depend on the government for their living expenses. The Tax Foundation reports that 20% of Americans now get three-fourths of their income from the federal government, and another 20% get nearly half of their income from the government.

America Becomes a Two-Class Society

The tremendous spending programs demanded by Barack Obama and voted into law by an obedient Democratic Congress have divided America into two classes: those who pay for the services provided by government and the freeloaders. Half of Americans, 47%, pay no federal income tax at all. That isn't the worst of it. Most of the half of Americans who pay no income tax actually receive handouts of cash or financial benefits paid for by those who do pay income taxes.

Race to the Top -- or to the Takeover!

Barack Obama arranged to have nearly a billion dollars included in his Stimulus law so his Administration can hand out new federal taxpayers' money to the public schools. The money will be spent by the politicians Obama brought with him from the Chicago Democratic political machine, headed by Arne Duncan, now Secretary of Education. One of the projects this money will be used for is called Race To The Top. The plan is for state education departments to submit grant applications to the federal government to compete to get a sizable hunk of this money.

Taxpayers Misled about Costs of Public Schools

The amount Americans spend on education has risen dramatically and consistently over the past century, with a 25% increase in per-student costs between 1995 and 2005, even after adjusting for inflation. In fact, public education spending accounted for more than one-third of state budgets last year.
Yet taxpayers are regularly asked to dig deeper into their pockets for public schools, all the while having little to no idea how much their district is already spending per child per year. A report released in March by the Cato Institute explains how figures provided by officials and reported in the media often leave out major costs, and thus understate education spending.

Obama Establishes Council of Governors

We are repeatedly reminded that Barack Obama, for a time, taught constitutional law, but it's hard to believe he is knowledgeable abut the Constitution. He doesn't seem to understand that the U.S. Constitution established a government based on federalism, that means, our national government is limited by the powers retained by the individual states.