Category Uncategorized

Oct 16 2017

The Red County Caucus Issues Statement on Tax Reform

 

 

Tax Reform

As Congress debates the way forward to reform the burdensome tax code, The Red County Caucus offers some common sense parameters for effective tax reform. Most can agree that this Nation is in desperate need of tax relief but the process and implementation often get lost to the web of special interests, D.C. Power brokers, and entrenched bureaucracy. The Nation can no longer afford to wait as Washington wallows in it’s stagnation and We The People demand true and effective reform now.

The business capital of the United States continues to shrink while the size of the government continues to grow. This alarming trend is unsustainable and must be reversed. History shows that our economy functions best when the free market is strengthened and the effect of government intrusion is weakened.

To that point, Tax Reform must provide relief to all taxpayers. It is important that tax cuts have a liberating effect on the economies of every tax bracket. Every hard working American must realize more of their own income in their own pocket which in turn will loosen restricted budgets energizing local economies.

A sound tax policy must encourage business investment which is the life blood of economic growth. The anti-business policies of the past administration must be rejected for a pro-growth, pro-business tax code which gives incentive for investment in both small and large business. This will create real private sector jobs.

The balance of economic power must be shifted back to the private sector. This can only be accomplished by offsetting the tax cuts with cuts to the size of government. We must shrink the size of government.

This is accomplished through cuts to discretionary spending, meaningful reductions and cuts to the federal bureaucracy. Federal procurement procedures must be audited and true reforms implemented. An effective restructure to the entitlements must be addressed, which will focus and target the truly needy by establishing common sense parameters on cost and qualification.

The government with the least amount of functions, functions best. A simplified tax code is the best solution. As those in Washington argue the whys and wherefores of true reform and government’s place in our society, it would do our representatives well to remember the old adage: Less is More.

Oct 15 2017

Forget the Law, Be Nice

 

Senator Susan Collins is reveling in her new found notoriety as chief saboteur of conservative policy. It was not even two years ago that the Honorable Senator from Maine chanted “Repeal and Replace” to the cheering delegates of the Maine Republican Convention. It would seem that the promise to remove ObamaCare was something akin to her promise to only serve two terms as a U.S. Senator: a lie.

Now she is touring the wheel of D.C. Punditry wielding a healthy disregard for the rule of law. Her criticism of President Trump’s order stopping ObamaCare subsidies is based on the emotion that she feels his decision hurts certain people groups. This may in fact be true but she is missing, by ignorance or design, the irrefutable and incontrovertible fact that the payments were illegal.

In order to pay the exorbitant price tag of the ACA, President Obama circumvented Congress by Executive Order and began paying insurance companies, subsidizing the high costs of government healthcare. The Constitution clearly states that the President cannot make any financial payments without Congressional authorization and a Federal Court has ruled that these payments were in fact illegal, criminal, and theft.

In light of this legal ruling and the Constitution, this sitting President is bound by law to correct the illegal and criminal actions of the past President. The problem of damage to any certain people groups may be a sad truth, but the fault lies not with those who are bound by law to correct the crime. The fault lies with those who committed the crime in the first place: President Obama, those in Congress who enabled the President with silence, and the insurance companies who are complicit in the fraud.

It is concerning at best, that the senior Senator from Maine seems content to base her decisions, and arguments for such, on emotions rather then facts and the rule of law. The healthcare debacle is a national crisis which is not best served by leaders who vacillate from year to year manipulating their political stances to accommodate political expediency, changing from election year rhetoric to special interest’s influence. Senator Collins should work to find solutions grounded in fact and law rather than emotion wielded in spite.

Oct 9 2017

The Red County Caucus Issues Response to Senator Collins’ Stance on Graham Cassidy

 

 

The Red County Caucus expresses its strong displeasure with the misguided approach Senator Susan Collins has chosen to the healthcare catastrophe that is the Affordable Care Act. The ACA, or ObamaCare, has burdened millions Americans across the United States, including residents of the State of Maine, with skyrocketing premiums, a labyrinth of confusing regulations, dropped coverage, and the fear of a collapsing market. The hard working people in the Pine Tree State have watched the Senior Senator from Maine adopt a Washington-first approach in a dogged obstruction of the President, catering to establishment D.C. special interests rather than joining her fellow Republicans who are desperately trying to formulate a solution to the impending demise of the American healthcare system brought on by the ACA.

It was not two years ago that Senator Collins emphatically promised the enthusiastic delegates at the 2016 Maine Republican Convention that she would work to “repeal and replace” ObamaCare. Members of The Red County Caucus were there in attendance as delegates. We now ask, what has changed since Senator Collins stood on that platform basking in the glow of the applause and approval of her promise?

Certainly, the outlook for ObamaCare is more dire and bleak than ever. Does the Senator find ObamaCare more to her liking now? The Healthcare Exchange for Maine is collapsing. Are these the repercussions she preferred when she embraced the status quo rather than reform?

The Republican inaction on the Repeal of the ACA is in no small part a result of the votes and stances Senator Collins has taken. While the Honorable Senator may revel in the notoriety it has brought her, Maine has been spotlighted in this national crisis for all the wrong reasons. We of The Red County Caucus strongly urge Senator Collins to remember this State that she represents when casting votes and remind her that the impact of those votes are not felt in the marble halls of Washington D.C. but in the rugged rural streets and roads of Maine’s fishing, farming, and logging communities.

Oct 5 2017

Lethal Weapon

 

The cry of decency has been buried beneath the din of opportunism and exploitation. The decent man has been forced into battle to protect his rights when he would prefer silence to honor the dead. The onslaught is upon us, trampling the graves that have yet to be filled with the fallen.

But is was inevitable. The shameless have become predictable, bludgeoning Americans into a dull, numb apathy. We are a tired, we are worn, and we are sick of being blamed for the monstrosities of every madman.

It was interesting to hear a recent caller to radio program insist that he enlighten the listening world that one should see by looking at a black rifle that it is designed to kill. Yes, all guns are designed to kill just as knives are designed to cut and hammers are designed to pound. A weapon’s efficiency does not preclude it from use.

So, predictably, we are here again, reminding the willfully ignorant that the Second Amendment is not for hunting or sport, but it is the fail-safe our Founders acknowledged in protecting our Natural Born Right to self-defense against the most lethal weapon of all, government. They knew that a government without the restraint of the people is by its own very nature oppressive. It must put down dissent to ensure its own survival.

This writer is a gun owner but in no wise an expert. I am just now understanding what a bump stock is. I do know, with strong conviction, that the people must have weapons that level the field with the government. This the purpose of the Second Amendment; to insure a government that fears the people.

Every government that has taken the Natural Born Right of the people to self-defense away has always perpetrated violence upon those citizens. Any voice of dissent by the populace is squashed with violence. This is without exception. So remember this simple truth as these redundant arguments boil and regurgitate again; the most lethal weapon on this earth is armed government unrestrained by an disarmed citizens.