Blow Away the Smoke

Back in my day, the military devoted an entire manual to using smoke screens to conceal your actions or intentions. Today, politicians posing as leaders have perfected the art of using smoke screens for the same purpose. Often they succeed with help from airheads in the media who carry the water for one political party or the other. Lets blow away some of the smoke and see if we can figure out what they are trying to hide. Remember, the truth will set you free.


• The federal deficit is way too complicated for ordinary citizens to understand. Blow the smoke away and it isn't that complicated. The federal government will collect more than two thousand five hundred billion dollars in taxes this year. But it will spend over one thousand, five hundred billion dollars more than it collects in taxes. The difference in the two numbers is the deficit. There are lots of reasons the deficit has gotten so large, and both Parties are equally responsible. One huge reason is what, in the past I have called the "re-elect me Christmas tree."

• The federal debt is way too complicated for ordinary citizens to understand. Poof: same thing. When the federal government spends more than it collects in taxes, it borrows money to make up the difference. The amount borrowed is added to the federal debt. We pay interest on that debt, just like you do on your debts. President Obama acknowledges that all too soon, the interest on our debt alone will reach one thousand billion dollars a year. That number will come much sooner if the interest rate we pay increases even by a tiny percent. Every year or so, Congress promises that it will stop borrowing more money by putting a ceiling on what we owe. Today, the ceiling is fourteen thousand, three hundred billion dollars. We are about to hit the ceiling. Again, both Parties are equally irresponsible for letting the debt get so far out of hand.

• If Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling, the United States will default on our debt to China and the world will end. This comes from a man who many believe should be in jail for tax fraud, but instead is Secretary of the Treasury. Blow the smoke away. Refusing to raise the debt ceiling will mean that Congress cannot borrow any more money. This will mean that once Congress spends the more than two thousand five hundred billion it has collected in taxes this year, it cannot spend any more money. This in turn will mean that if we don't want the world to end, we have to pay the Chinese before we run out of money. In other words, Congress will have to set spending priorities limited by what is collected in taxes. Isn't that what we hired them to do?

• The President can ignore his oath of office by issuing a "signing statement" in which he says he will ignore part of a bill passed by both houses of congress and sent to him for signature. Let's blow the smoke away. By summarily ignoring the "no more csars provision" of the budget deal, Obama is effectively exercising a line-item veto. Every time a president has asked for the legal authority to use a line-item veto, we have said no. Take a minute to read Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution in which we, the People, laid out the procedure for a bill to become Law. Then read Article II, Section 1 which includes the oath we, the People, require anyone to take before they assume the office of president. Now read Article II, Section 4 which says in part, the President shall be removed from office on impeachment for and conviction of "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."

Should we impeach him?

Let's stay focused on our economic crisis and not be pulled off course by Donald Trump (Trump Enterprises filed three times for bankruptcy) "birther" issues, and calls for impeachment. I have two sons who were born in Germany. Both their mother and I are citizens of the United States. Both of them are "natural born Citizens" despite the fact they were born in Germany. Either of them is just as eligible to be president as I am. I don't care where Barack Hussein Obama was born. As long as his birth mother was a citizen, he is eligible to be president as well. I do care when the President asserts the unconstitutional power to decide what part of a bill passed by both houses of Congress he will follow, and which parts he won't. If our House is going to impeach this guy, let it be on that basis and let the process start now. That said, lets blow the smoke away from impeachment. Even if the House voted to impeach, the Senate would acquit on a party line vote and we'd be right back where we started. Why waste the energy?

Let's focus on pressuring our representatives to vote for strong conservative values. Let's continue the search for a true conservative to defeat Obama in 2012. Let's make sure our voices continue to be heard and let's use our intellects and patriotism to blow away the smoke.