Budgets and Taxes

“The deficit is going to be a symbol of the GOP’s credibility problem, and the budget is going to be the document we use,” said U.S. Representative Rahm Emanuel, a Democrat from Illinois.

This quote is quite right. The GOP will be remembered for what it did with the deficit these last few years.

Last year, the federal budget deficit for 2004 was $412 billion. That is a sum that is nearly unimaginable to all of us. That number was also dangerously high. The current projected budget deficit for 2005 (I do not even want to hear any flak about a projected deficit from you liberals, because a projected budget is the only way you people could ever claim there WOULD have been a surplus) is $333 billion. That is, if I am not mistaken, a drop in the value of the deficit.

Now, as we all know, this is bad news, for the deficit is all Bush’s fault. The deficit is one of the main reasons why Bush should resign (that and the fact that he was born). Senator John Kerry (who served in Vietnam) and white male Michael Moore told us that the tax cuts Bush gave “the rich” were going to not only starve the poor, but they were also going to make our country’s deficit run wild like a Howard Dean follower.

Unfortunately, the liberals do not seem to understand how economics works. You see, Bush’s tax cuts are very responsible for the smaller deficit. When Bush gave the tax cuts, there was more money for every American to spend. You see, when Americans have more money to spend, they spend it.

For example, if Joe Blow gets $500 dollars back, he is going to go down to the Wendy’s in Evergreen and buy hamburgers for the next few weeks. So, before Bush’s tax cuts, Planned Parenthood would have gotten that $500 to kill people, but after the tax cuts, Wendy’s got that money. What did Wendy’s do with that money? The combined added revenue from the tax cuts caused Wendy’s to open new restaurants. That meant Wendy’s had to HIRE more workers. When that happened, those new workers contributed more taxes to the government. Thus, Wendy’s caused more tax revenue to flow toward the deficit, therefore causing it to shrink.

I went through that very simple example to show you liberals (conservatives already knew this you see) how very smart it really was to give the tax cuts.

Of course, the liberals wanted us (they still do) to raise taxes to cut the deficit. What would that have done?

Imagine Wendy’s taxes have been raised; therefore they have to lay off a few workers at each store. Those workers are now on unemployment, and thus are draining off the system. What happened? Wendy’s profits are down, many employees are out of work, and the deficit is shrinking. As opposed to Wendy’s profits rising, brand new workers in the workforce, and a shrinking deficit. Which is better? I will let you decide that.

Uncle Rico and the US Supreme Court

A Note From Caleb:

My readers, you are in for, what I believe, is a special treat. Today, and I hope for many months to come, we will be hearing from my new partner on my blog, Uncle Rico (is he really going to keep that name? LOL) Uncle Rico and I will be trading off with the writing. I will write an article one week, he will write one the next week, and so on and so forth.

The reason I have done this, of course, is because lately I have not had the time to update the blog. Therefore, Uncle Rico is going to let a ton of pressure off my back by updating every other week. This is still my blog though so do keep coming back. I will always be here, but now you’ll just get another opinion to read. Happy reading.

Your favorite 17-year-old Macintosh user,
Caleb



Uncle Rico:

There is clearly a double standard when comparing the Democrats vs. the Republicans. Whether the double standard deals with the media, filibusters, electing judicial nominees, or even in the portrayal of President Bush, the Republicans are given the short end of the stick. The most recent case on the double standard deals with the replacement of a justice on the US Supreme Court. The Democrats plea they want a justice who will serve the needs of America; therefore they scornfully tell the President to nominate a moderate or else… Sounds like they want to control the federal government.

Let’s further examine the Democrats and their liberal friends’ tactics. After Justice O’Connor’s retirement announcement, People for the American Way blasted 400,000 e-mails to its groupies. The e-mail instructed the groupies to contact their US senators and demand a moderate justice as O’Connor’s replacement. Senators such as Kennedy, Schumer, and Salazar verbally warned the President to pick a justice that represents America, or be prepared for a fight.

Well, I say, let the Republicans don the gloves and fight. President Bush has the possibility of nominating 3 justices to the US Supreme Court. These are lifetime appointments and greatly influence every citizen in America. Do you remember reading in your history book about the Dred Scott case which contributed to the Civil War? More recently, remember the Kelo v. City of New London decision? In this decision, the government has the right to take your property for the “good” of the community.

Every citizen must become educated on the importance of the role of federal judges.

As Conservatives, we must demand strict constructions interpretation of the Constitution. We must stop our judges from legislating from their benches. We must demand our judges to follow the U.S. Constitution and not the culture or their personal views.

Tuesday night, President Bush nominated Judge John Roberts. Most conservatives appear to agree with his judicial principles. Let us hope that the Republican track record for nominating justices has changed. Republican presidents nominated seven of the nine present justices. Yet only 3 of the 9 are solid conservatives. Let’s hope Judge John Roberts stays true to his record and does not drift to the Left. Let us hope common sense and a strict interpretation of our Constitution will prevail in the US Supreme Court. Let us hope that the US Republicans will stand firm and support Judge John Roberts. Like I said earlier, let the judicial review begin.

!Uncle Rico!

Home Schoolers And Life

A favorite topic of mine is the home school movement in America (it is also growing all around the world, but I want to focus on America in this article). I personally know many home schoolers. Some of them are my best friends.

And thus, I hear, on a regular basis, an age old fear that unenlightened and ignorant people (also known as liberals) have about home schoolers. They fear that home schoolers are not socialized enough. Of course, we all know their real fear is that these home schoolers do not use government run education, but that is a different topic.

Socialization is a question that home schoolers hear on a regular basis, especially by those who do not understand home schooling. The questions come in a variety of different forms, but from what I have been able to summarize from asking people, they all boil down into the following exchange:

“Hey Anna (home schooled), so do you have any friends?” Mitch asks.
Anna has to think about it for a minute, for she has heard this question many times before, and wants to respond in the clearest way possible, “Of course, I do.”
“But how can you make friends without going to school?” Mitch, quite perplexed, continues.
“The same way you do, I get involved in activities and just meet people.”
“Mmhmm, well, I guess that could work.”

That quote comes from the combined experiences of 99.99% of home schoolers. People find it very hard to believe that students who are tutored at home could ever become socialized, opinionated, and have the ability to assert themselves.

How can we prove, then, that home schoolers are indeed socialized? Researchers have viewed socialization through the lens of a person’s self-concept. That means that the higher a person’s self-concept, the better. The studies show that home schoolers are as proud of themselves as their peers. However, being proud of one’s self does not mean you are socialized.

How then do we measure how well a persona has been socialized? A good way to do such a thing is to see how well home schoolers participate in their communities compared to how well their peers in government run institutions do. I have written an article on this topic called, The Power Of The Home. Go to that article so see what I found when it comes to home schoolers and their participation in the political process.

The best way, however, to prove that home schoolers are socialized as good or better than their government school peers is to study their social skills.

Sadly, there has not been a tremendous amount of study in this area (I wonder if that has been done on purpose?). A very reputable study, however, has emerged. David J. Francis, a psychologist with the Saranac Lake Central School District in New York, and Timothy Z. Keith, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Texas, have both done studies on home schoolers and their government school peers.

The study took 34 home schoolers and 34 government school students and compared the two groups. They used the standard procedures to assure that very little bias existed in the study.

The method used to study the two groups was the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS). The study measured self-control, assertiveness, responsibility, cooperation, externalizing, internalizing, and hyperactivity in both groups.
What was the result of this study? The home schoolers were no different than their counterparts in the government school in the areas of cooperation, assertiveness, and responsibility. In fact, home schoolers scored higher than their counterparts in the area of self-control.

Well, it appears that as far as we can tell, home schoolers are not unsocialized. Of course, the absolute best way to know this is not to look at studies, but to get to know some home schoolers (that is going to be easy, since home schooling is growing rapidly). You will see that they are indeed equal to their government school peers, and much smarter on average than their peers. Looks like the Left got it wrong again.

Your favorite snowboarder and political guru!!!