Why am I still a Republican? The GOP just passed a bill that cuts veterans benefits, increases the debt, and raises fees (taxes) And in doing so they gutted the Sequester, the only successful attempt to stop the growth of government in recent memory. They decided to declare war on the very people who put them in the House, the Tea Party. Now, all accounts suggest the GOP is going all in on amnesty in the spring. And if amnesty is passed, the GOP will go full bore Big Government in an effort to try to win the larger Hispanic vote.
They don’t call the GOP the party of stupid for nothing. Per Wikipedia: In the 2010 midterm elections, 60% of Hispanics voted Democratic, while 38% voted Republican.[5] In 2008, 67% of Hispanics voted for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, while 31% of Hispanics voted for Republican presidential candidate John McCain.[6] In 2006, 69% of Latino voters supported Democratic candidates in congressional races, while 30% supported Republican candidates. So with all these facts in mind, what does the GOP think will add to the it’s chances in the 2014 election? “Lets add to the Democrat base of voters!” Actually, it’s worse then that. Previously, the GOP and its base had a bit of a understanding. The GOP pretends to be Conservative and we pretend to believe them as long as there were some lines that the GOP did not cross. They are however, crossing a good number of them this year. And in doing so the GOP has alienated a good portion of their base including people just like me. I, for one, am tired of it. And I will not play the game anymore.
I have no problem with legal immigration. Our nation was founded by immigrants. These were hard working immigrants who believed in the American Dream and assimilated into the melting pot called America. Not Asian Americans, or Italian Americans, or German Americans, but just Americans. Illegal immigration is a different matter. I am fully aware a vote for a third party is a vote for the Democrats in a two party system but I am starting to see little difference between the two because I know how it will end if Amnesty passes. Amnesty will eventually bankrupt a country struggling with debt and overload a healthcare system already weakened by Obamacare. it will spark another wave of immigration. It will create a huge shift in voting patters, and drive down wages. This will hurt the poor and African Americans, the very group that votes Democrat 90% of the time. Because of Amnesty there will be fewer jobs, and it will overwhelm our welfare system. And in an effort to pay for this, you guessed it, taxes will increase as will the debt. And as the percentage of debt per the GDP increases yearly, amnesty will only make the rise quicker and hasten the eventual collapse of our country’s social programs. If the country will go down, it will go down with me staying true to my values rather then being stuck with the party of stupid. I am telling Boehner one thing. If amnesty passes, I am done with the GOP. I will become an independent.
Send a message! If you agree with me please like my facebook page!
Tell him you too will leave the GOP if amnesty passes.
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I haven’t considered myself part of the GOP for years. When people ask me which party I support I tell them I am a conservative…For me there is a huge difference between Republicans and true conservatives….The Republicans have become nothing than the go along to get along party so that all the perks and benefits they personally enjoy don’t go up in smoke…
Another round of the Amenesty Game is beyond a bad idea but Boehner will cave as he always does and go along with it, all the while wondering why 90 percent of them vote Democrat… (Hint for John, that’s because Dems are the party of “free” shit and people won’t vote for somebody who might not provide said free stuff)
While I am a ‘registered’ Rep, I REFUSE to support them in any way. Not one dime of my funds will go to them. I do support TEA Party candidates. I just wish I had more to give.
Primaries, primaries, primaries.
The Democrats winning formula is to hire themselves a ticket-splitting stooge-from-nowhere to mouth libertarian schtick and run as a third-party whenever an election looks to be close. Don’t play their game, get involved and clobber the establishment candidate in the primaries.
What the GOP did in VA 2013, shame on them.
Donate to candidates, not the stupid-party – they can’t even articulate an argument how Obama blatantly violates the Constitution.
Only Kings and Tyrants can suspend law without parliamentary procedure.
You said it Rob! “Overload” Can you spell “CLOWARD-PIVEN?” The left is pushing through and the GOP/RNC/RINO’s could give a crap. I don’t donate any longer and did not vote last November for the first time in my life. Pretty sad and all anyone can do is get upset cuz The Duck Commander gets canned. It’s a lot bigger than that my friends!
I’m with Doramin 100%. Primary the RINO’s to put some steel back in their spine. We only have to beat a couple to get our point across. The others will move right to avoid an expensive primary, especially in tight districts. But if our first choice loses in the primary, we need to support the Republican in the general election. We know a Democrat will vote against our best interests every single time. I knocked on a thousand doors for the Romney campaign– and he was my second to last choice. But he was better than Obama any day of the millennium. As a Virginian I now have zero representation. The Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, both Senators, and my congressman are all Democrats. So is my Delegate and state Senator. At least I have nowhere to go but up…
I was a republican since I was 18. I am 56 years of age and now I am a libertarian. I signed up with them about 3 months ago. The republican party is nothing more that they democrat party lite. I understand now exactly what Mr Reagan meant when he said that ‘ I didn’t leave the Democrat party it left me.’ The leadership of the RNC has no desire to remove the rinos from its ranks. So I had to do what I had to do.
They passed this bill because the alternative to NOT passing it was even worse. Had this bill passed, we were looking at another $109 billion dollars coming out of the military budget. 100% of *additional* sequester cuts in 2014 were to come from the military, another $109 billion. We are currently down to 2 combat ready brigades in the Army. Units being shipped to Afghanistan currently are not trained for offensive combat operations. The Army has had no significant training exercises in over 6 months. Had this bill not passed, the Army was looking at separating tens of thousands of troops, most in the higher ranks, before they had a chance to retire. These are career people, many of them combat veterans, who intend to retire who would be thrown out of the service with nothing.
Unlike every other government department, pension benefits come right out of the military budget. When an employee who worked at EPA retires and gets a COLA increase, that increase in pension does not come from EPA’s budget. When a military retiree gets a COLA increase, it DOES come out of DoD’s budget. So military retirement pay, unlike all other federal departments, competes with the operational funds available. Even with this cut, only half of the sequester cuts were restored to the military. There is still talk going on, for example, about if we really need a Marine Corps or not.
Military pensions are also different from other pensions in other ways. Under normal circumstances you can not draw a federal pension at all, no matter how many years you served, until you are 62. In some cases you can draw early but at a loss of 5% of your base retirement salary for every year before 62 you retire. So generally speaking, there are no other “working age” retirees from anywhere else in the federal government whose retirement income is not their sole source of income. The average military retirement age is 42 and they draw their pension immediately. Most of these retirees go on to start a second career. Few of them have their pension as the sole source of income. If you are going to have to make a reduction in retirement expense, this is where it would hurt people the least. It is not a judgement on who deserves what, it is a judgement on where the pain would least likely to get someone thrown out of their home. A reduction in increase of retirement pay of $10 a month or less is not likely to see people eating dog food. A reduction for people who are actually retired and the pension is their sole source of income would be a different story.
As originally written, this would begin to be phased in with the December 2014 COLA adjustment effective in January 2015 checks. This was pushed back a year to be effective with the December 2015 COLA adjustment effective with January 2016 checks. That change is crucial. We have elections in November 2014. That Congress will be seated in Jan 2015. This deal expires on Sept. 30, 2015 with the end of the FY 2015 budget. Congress will immediately start working on the FY 2016 budget which should be completed and sent to the President in late summer 2015. If the Republicans can get the Senate, this provision will likely be stripped from the FY 2016 budget before it has a chance to become effective and before anyone sees any change in their check.
This illustrates the problem with trying to change ANYTHING on the “non-discretionary” side of the budget. Any pension of any sort is a promise. Reducing any pension of any sort is going to cause people to be upset. The primary problem here is the fact that military pensions compete directly with the operational budget for funds. If cuts have to be made in the military budget, if retirement funds are off limits, all cuts have to come out of the operational side. The number of military retirees increases every single year and COLA increases raises the amount of outlay even if they didn’t. In 2000 there were 1,701,218 military retirees. In 2011 there were nearly a quarter of a million more at 1,932,928 retirees. All of those pensions must come from the defense budget unlike every other federal pension. Outlays for retirement for 2000 were 32.858 billion. In 2011 that had exploded to 50.648 billion, nearly double.
Increases in pension outlays are eating the defense department alive. A better long term solution would be to find a way to separate the military pensions and get them out of the operational defense budget so retirement funds do not compete for operational funds.
This deal sucks, but it was the least bad option and it can be undone if Republicans can take the Senate in 2014.
Reference: http://actuary.defense.gov/Portals/15/Documents/statbook11.pdf
One suggestion I would have is for Congress to approve movement of military pensions from DoD to the federal pension system when the recipient reaches 62. That would remove half the pensions burdening the DoD operational budget.
crosspatch
WHY PICK ON MILITARY PEOPLE? why give them this or that,
GIVE THEM THE MONEY PROMISSED TO THEM, NEVER CUT THEM,
IT DEMORALIZE THE TROOP AND IT AMPLIFY THE MATTER IN THEIR MIND ,
NOT BECAUSE THAT CUT ONLY, BUT BECAUSE THE UNDER POLICIES OF WHY THEY VOTED FOR THE CUT,
THE MILITARY DON’T NEED TO EVER GET CUTS ON ANY BUDGET,
DON’T WE KNOW THEY WHO ARE KILLED IN THE WARZONE ARE THE ALREADY CUTOFF THOSE BUDGET,
GET THOSE DEMOCRATS OUT OF THERE, THEY ARE DISENGAGE FROM THE MILITARY LIVES AND ACTIONS WHO GO IN THEIR WORK TO PROTECT THIS AMERICA,
GET THOSE F..KERS OUT WHO SIGN TO CUT THEM, AND THEY ARE NO MORE FOR THE PEOPLE,
NO MORE FOR THE FUTURE GROUNDED AMERICANS LEFT UNBORN IN THEIR TRASH CAN,
THEY DON’T HAVE ANY FEELING FOR THE WARRIORS, THEY LOST IT,
THEY ONLY HAVE THEIR BIG BUILDING AND WORKERS MULTIPLE PEOPLE OVER NUMBERING THE CITIZENS BY THEIR OVER FRACTION ACCORDING TO THE CITIZENS, RECIEVING THE BEST MONEY FROM THE CITIZENS CAN NO MORE BUY THEM, AND STILL BEING HIRED TO FIX THE OBAMACARE
MONSTER, YOU WANT TO CUT? CUT THEM IN BIG NUMBERS,
DON’T NEVER TOUCH THE MIITARIES,
IF THEY INCREASE IN NUMBER,
IT’S BECAUSE THERE IS MORE HATERS
WHICH OBAMA ORDERED THE MILITARY TO KEEP THEM ALIVE,
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO THE MILITARY, AT THE FRONT LINES,
DON’T LET THOSE DISTURB YOUR MINDSET,
DON’T ANY ONE OF YOU COMMIT SUICIDE FOR ANY EXCUSES, WE WANT YOU BACK AND IN SPIRIT SO TO CONTRIBUTE IN THE PARTICIPATION OF MAKING MORE OF THE BRAVEST IN AMERICA,
TE BEST OF AMERICA PRODUCE SINCE HER BEGINING AND BECAUSE OF THEM DOES AMERICA STILL STAND, AND WILL FALL WITHOUT THE MILITARY,
A SURE CERTAINTY,
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ROB, FOR GIVING US THIS POST,
AND TO ALL BLOGGERS HERE, TOGETHER WE STAND,
When you insist on posting in ALL-CAPS!!!!11!!!ONE!!!, it makes it tiresome to read. While you might have made a very good point, it likely was ineffective and/or lost due to people tuning out your “SHOUTING IN ALL CAPS” response.
Jeff
you’re right, forgive me for the caps, I thought it would be better , but it”s the same ,
by changing the laptop, It”s even worse
but I find it frustrating to express my thoughts flowing too fast for my fingers too slow,
while I “m pushing the caps down with the left finger,
eventualy I take of my left finger and feel free to continue, faster, while the caps rise up happy to
make the letters bigger, they gave me a bad habit, and I’m trying to loose it,
but I need reminder from who hate the caps, and I”m good for a while,
until , like an addiction, I fall miserably back with the caps, again, until one come to stop me again,
I promiss to work on it this new year,
I gave you all this talk,; because you told me in such a gentleman smart style,
which I appreciate, and I don”t mean to shout; really,
HAPPY NEW YEAR,
and please remind me again later,