There are a number of citizens and parents of North Carolina student that have real concerns about the new Common Core Curriculum. While the News and Observer would lead you to believe that concerns or opposition to Common Core are all from the far right or Tea Party, it ranges across the political spectrum. Lt. Governor Dan Forest raises a number of these issues and concerns in a 4 minute video he recently released.
PRESS RELEASE
Representative discusses Obamacare, sequestration, and out-of-control spending in Washington
23 April 2013, Cary, NC — US Representative Renee Ellmers (R) was the featured speaker at the April meeting of the Western Wake Republican Club on Monday. The Congresswoman, who was recently re-elected for her 2nd term in the US House of Representatives made a final stop to speak to party faithful before flying back to Washington later Monday night. She was preceded on the rostrum by Habitat for Humanity’s Wake County Development Director, Melanie Rankin.
Representative Ellmers touched on a small assortment of subjects including Obamacare, sequestration and budget cuts, Mental Healthcare, and a pet legislative project (HR 1416) designed to protect local cancer treatment centers from potential funding shortfalls brought about by sequestration.
Obamacare dominated Ms. Ellmers’ comments because of its failure to improve healthcare quality and its negative impact on federal spending. According to the Congresswoman, it was the threat of the “Affordable Care Act” that drew her into the race for a congressional seat in 2010. “I knew it wasn’t the way to go,” she said. Ellmers suggested that Obamacare was a classic example of “legislative overkill” in Washington DC and indicated that the legislation is, in some respects, collapsing under its own weight. “It’s too expensive, the funds aren’t there; federal mandates are not the way to go.”
Ms. Ellmers indicated that in North Carolina, Health Insurance costs are up 65% since the law was enacted. She also suggested that the legislation is pushing the country towards an unworkable national healthcare system as hospitals “buy up” individual doctors’ practices. The antidote the Congresswoman recommended is a combination of free market reforms and legislative corrections to return control of the industry to practitioners and patients and restore Medicaid and Medicare to long-term stability.
Regarding sequestration and out of control spending, Representative Ellmers said the sequester “is actually working.” It is only a cut of 2% of the federal budget — essentially, it merely slows the rate of growth in federal spending and is not a cut at all, the Congresswoman said.
Only the Republican-controlled Congress has offered a responsible budget plan that would balance the federal budget within ten years, Ellmers said. By contrast, she pointed out, the Senate and White House budgets never balance, suggesting Democrats don’t have a viable plan to curb Washington’s profligate spending and improve prospects for out-of-work and underemployed Americans.
Representative Ellmers also fielded a few questions from the audience comprised of members and guests of the Cary and Apex Republican Clubs as well as a contingent from the noted liberal group, MoveOn.org. To a question about the repeal of Obamacare, Ellmers responded that the bill was being effectively dismantled piecemeal as provisions fail to receive funding from Congress.
When challenged about her lower-than-average rating by conservative groups, Heritage Action and Club for Growth, the Representative retorted that these organizations are not objective and “cherry pick” the legislation and votes they use to score representatives’ conservatism based on their own agendas. She said more objective organizations like the National Journal & American Conservative Union factor all legislation into their scores and they rate the Congresswoman much higher on the conservative scale—in the 90+ percent range.
One attendee challenged the Congresswoman to be as open with the public as is Representative David Price (4th District) by holding open Town Hall meetings instead of speaking only to friendly partisan groups. Ms. Ellmers accepted the challenge initially, but expressed distrust for the town hall meeting format saying it invited confrontation rather than meaningful conversation about issues. Instead, she invited the audience to participate with her in electronic (online) town hall conversations where she communicates with thousands of constituents, or to visit her website (http://ellmers.house.gov) to learn more of her policy agenda and to engage in a dialog with her there.
Meeting attendees also heard from Melanie Rankin, Development Director for Habitat for Humanity in Wake County. Ms. Rankin debunked some myths about the organization, such as the idea that Habitat homes are “free,” explaining that homeowners provide a down payment plus 250 hours of personal labor on their properties and take on an affordable 20-year mortgage. But the homes are sold for cost (no profit) and are built with volunteer labor so the program makes home-ownership accessible to many who, otherwise, could not afford it.
The Western Wake and Apex Republican Clubs are working together to organize a work day for Habitat on May 18th. Those interested can find more information on the Western Wake Club’s website at www.westernwakegop.org.
The Western Wake Republican Club meets on the 4th Monday of every month at 6pm for a social/networking hour and at 7pm for the formal meeting. Meetings typically feature guest speakers of some prominence in the GOP organization including elected officials and other policy experts as well as representatives of other community organizations with which the club may be involved. Meetings are currently being held at Mahoney’s Pub at the corner of Cary Parkway and Tryon Road in Cary. The public is always welcome.
WWRC members present Barbara Whitehead, Executive Director of NCPacks4Patriots, with items collected for care packages for our troops.
NCPacks4Patriots is an Ayden, NC based nonprofit organization formed with the mission to support troops and their family members by providing care and comfort items and expressions of appreciation for their service and sacrifices.
Want to help? Volunteer and help spread the word! “Like” NCPacks4Patriots on Facebook, or support their mission with items needed for care packages:
Gift Cards: Gift cards to stores such as Target, WalMart, KMart, Harris Teeter, etc. Include a signed card with a message of support and NCP4P will shop for items for a package and include your card.
Postage: $5.50 and $1.10 stamps for sending packages to our troops.
Most importantly – notes of support!
Donations may be:
Find out more about NCPacks4Patriots on their Facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/NCPacks4Patriots/328475863914949
As with any heated debate, oftentimes truth becomes the first casualty in the conflict. To be fair, it happens on both sides of the political spectrum. However, it just seems more accidental on our side and more purposeful on their side.
The quote that headlines this posting is what Barack Obama said about the “Bush Tax Cuts” during his campaign. Once again, the administration conveniently ignores or buries the truth. Jeffery Lord in an American Spectator article and Paul Sperry of the Hoover Institution in an IBD Editorial referenced by Jeffery Lord have provide us the facts of this simple truth: tax cuts increase tax revenues.
Please read the two articles and get the facts.
The most recent evidence proving this simple truth is the 2012 Economic Report of the President prepared by Timothy Geithner and signed by Barack Obama himself. To quote from Jeffery Lord’s article: “you can find it right here, buried in a long, eye-glazing page of statistics on page 413 at very end of a deeply unpublicized but legally-required official White House report.”
The articles cite the statistical record from the Kennedy, Reagan-Bush 1, Clinton, and Bush 2 years showing tax revenue growth, economic growth, and falling unemployment – not most of the time but every time taxes are cut. Even Clinton who, in 1997 after significant GOP pressure, reluctantly signed into law the capital gains rate decrease from 28% to 20% benefited from this simple truth. The effect of the rate reduction tripled capital investment and boosted overall tax receipts to $1 trillion for the first time ever. A full 20% of the increase in tax receipts from 1996-2000 was due to the collection of additional capital gains taxes.
Go here http://spectator.org/archives/2012/12/11/obama-scam-admitted-bush-tax-c to see the American Spectator article discussing this issue.
Go here http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-perspective/101712-629790-data-debunk-deficit-exploding-tax-cuts-myth.htm?p=full to read the original article by Paul Sperry with all of the detail.
Finally, and because the truth matters, let us set the record straight. The president who signed today’s tax rates into law on which your April 15, 2013, tax bill will be based and which reflect rate reductions from Clinton-era tax rates is…Barack Obama. Bush had his rates but Barack Obama has given us today’s rates. So, to be clear, you should call these the “Obama Tax Cuts” – Bush 2 was long gone when Obama made these rates the law of the land.
Apex Nativity Celebration
For the 9th consecutive year, residents of the Apex community and surrounds will gather at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Apex, to commemorate the birth and life of Jesus Christ in a Nativity Celebration that has become a seasonal tradition for many. The 3-day event which began on Thursday, December 6th, features over 600 nativity scenes from around the world on display and numerous musical performances by area artists and community groups. The event culminates with a Handel’s Messiah sing-in with full orchestra and choir on Saturday evening (December 8th) at 7:30. The public is invited and the event is free.
This year’s interfaith celebration will include a Children’s Nativity Room, performances by numerous high school choirs, the Triangle Area Community Orchestra, Jerome Waller and Anointed Praised, Kids are Music, and the Holly Springs Community Band among other groups and soloists. For a complete schedule of performances, visit the Apex Christmas Nativity Celebration website at http://christmasnativity.org/apex/. Nativity scenes for this year’s display represent over 30 different countries and have been loaned to the event by more than 100 participants.
At a time when secularism reigns supreme and the real meaning of Christmas seems to be under assault, this event is a refreshing reminder that the Judeo-Christian tradition that undergirds our great republic is still alive and well in the local community. Please come and celebrate the reason for the season at this singular area event.
The Republic is under assault. Individual liberty, personal responsibility, and equal justice are being transformed before our eyes into “shared prosperity” and “social justice” under the tutelage of a master Community Organizer. In other words, republican individualism is being traded down for democratic socialism, group-think, and the collectivist ideal. The results of the 2012 election at the national level demonstrate that a strong contingency of Americans and a majority of active voters now favor the security of the nanny state over the risk and reward dynamics of the free market economy. The new normal is fine with them as long as they get their “fair share” of their neighbors’ purse.
But the margin is slim. Obama got seven million less votes in 2012 than in 2008; his victory trimmed from a 5-point margin to barely 3. Unlike most second-termers who win with broader support, Barack Obama managed to squeak out the victory in a few key states on fewer votes than his first-term election and an electoral victory that swung on as slim as a margin as a half-million votes. That’s less than 2/10 of 1% of the population.
Ironically, the spend and spend ideology by which the Democrats purchased the suffrage of the dependent class is rapidly sewing the seeds of it’s own demise. That’s why, despite our recent setbacks, Republicans, conservatives, Libertarians, Independents, and even Democrats who still believe in the America of our Fathers and of our youth, cannot afford to falter. Our mission is ever more clear and our destiny, even more certain.
The Utopian collectivist ideal being regurgitated by Barack Obama and his ilk is as doomed to failure as was the soviet bloc in the 1980′s and the faltering socialist states of Europe today. If not next year or the year after that, then in 5 years, 10 years, or twenty, unchecked by serious and dramatic reforms, the redistributed economy will fall. They always do. The debt is unsustainable. The promises can never be kept. Eventually, without a change in course, the ship of state will sink in a storm of its own creation. It’s vital, therefore, that conservatives unite to educate the public about the dangers of the present course, reverse engines where possible, and be ready to take the helm wherever and whenever opportunities arise.
To recognize and embrace those opportunities then, we must reorganize NOW! It’s time to analyze and reflect, adjust, correct our course, and re-emerge with a stronger message, a more determined offensive, and the ACTION that will prepare us for the openings that certainly will come our way. Nowhere is such an opportunity greater than here and now in North Carolina. With the first Republican legislature in 100 years and an “R” behind the name of the state’s Chief Executive; against a backdrop of high unemployment and decades of state mismanagement in a culture of corruption, this is a crisis we must not waste–an opportunity we dare not squander. WE, the PEOPLE must hold our elected officials to account and demand they apply the principles of conservative, constitutional governance to establish our state as an exemplary leader under a strong Republican brand. Let us never shrink. The day is ours to seize!