Newsletter: Benton Co. Republicans, Oct. 26, The Gathering Storm

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. --James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)


Articles:
- Lord Monckton Warns of Cap and Trade Treaty
- Czar Accountability Is Questionable
- Benton County Republican Calendar
- Reformers Locked Out Of Reform Committee Room
- House Bill Raises, Not Lowers, Health Care Costs
- Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky
- Merkley tries to dilute 'Audit the Fed'


Lord Monckton of Brenchley Warns of Dangers in Signing Cap and Trade Treaty
In a passionate plea for Americans to wake up and tell Pres. Obama not to sign the Copenhagen Treaty, British Lord Christopher Monckton warned of dire consequences for the United States.

Lord Monckton, whose full title is 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, said that the purpose of the Copenhagen Treaty (an enlargement of the Kyoto Treaty) is the vast transfer of wealth from the West to third world countries. Western countries, especially the U.S., will be required to pay reparation for “climate debt”, a tax of up to 2% of GNP each year, he said.

Stating clearly that Pres. Obama is not trying to bring the U.S. into Socialism, but rather into Communism, Lord Monckton said that signing the Copenhagen Treaty will set up a world government (New World Order?). He said that right after the Berlin Wall came down, the former leaders of the Soviet Union began to build a “green” movement. Today, Michael Gorbechev is the darling of the Green Party and his doctrines and plans include sustainability and global warming.

After analyzing the actual document that will be presented to Pres. Obama for his signature, Lord Monckton says that the words “democracy,” “vote,” and “election” do not appear in the Copenhagen Treaty’s document. Our consent now will render us powerless to interfere later in the administration of the Treaty, says Lord Monckton. The U.S. will be handing power over our Constitution to a foreign entity.

Lord Monckton says that Pres. Obama WILL sign the Treaty unless we mount a huge effort to convince him that it will be political suicide. His vote must be ratified by 2/3 of the U.S. Senate in order to be effective.
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Czar Accountability Is Questionable
Are the new wage control schemes launched by the Pay Czar and the Fed the acts of independent experts, or are they the closely controlled policy decisions of the Obama White House?

The answer to that question goes to the core of the very real constitutional problems that the proliferation of czars in the Obama administration creates. Obama appointed Feinberg to be his Pay Czar without any input from the American people and without any approval from Congress. Heritage fellow Matthew Spalding explained the problem in his recent testimony to Congress:

The issue is not whether the proliferation of “czars” amounts to a usurpation of power by the executive branch. Rather, the fundamental issue is how the rise of modern administrative government has put us in an unsolvable dilemma: whether policy should be made by technical experts, insulated from public accountability and control, or whether policy should be made by our elected representatives in Congress and the executive branch. The rise of government by bureaucrats–due to the delegation of power from Congress to administrative agencies, combined with the removal of those agencies from the President’s control–has given rise to efforts by Presidents from both parties to get the bureaucratic state under control through various mechanisms. The rise of “czars” in the current administration is just another manifestation–albeit, an unfortunate one–of this phenomenon.

If the American people did want hold the Fed and the Pay Czar accountable for their wage control decisions, right now there is no way for them to do so.

…..The Heritage Foundation, Friday October 23, 2009

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Benton County Republican Calendar

Thursday, November 5: "We the People" Appreciation Dinner

Benton County Republican “We the People” Dinner at The Clubhouse, 6097 NE Ebony Lane, Adair Village. Featured speaker: The Honorable Representative Bruce Hanna (R), Oregon House Republican Leader. Social hour begins at 5:30 p.m. Dinner buffet by Valley Catering at 6:30 p.m. $20.00 per person. RSVP by October 29th by calling Maureen Russian, Dinner Chair (752 8244) or call Republican headquarters (754 9155). Reservations will be assured when your payment is received. Send Reservation to Benton County Republican Party, P.O. Box 808, Corvallis OR 97339

Saturday, November 7: THE MAKING OF AMERICA! A patriotic workshop for individuals and families
Time: 8:30am - 4:40pm
Place: Ames Research Laboratories, Inc (Ames Ranch), 1891 16th St SE, Salem, OR 97302
Fee: $18.00 per individual, $30 per couple, $55.00 per family of 4 ($10 for each additional person over 4) - Fee includes a 135 page study guide. A box lunch can be ordered at the time of ticket purchase for an additional $10.00. Includes a sandwich, 2 salads, a cookie and drink.

For more information go to Benton GOP Events or Website: www.912projectsalem.com
(Non-partisan event)
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Reformers Locked Out Of Reform Committee Room
By Tim Cameron on October 21, 2009 1:22 PM | Section: Reform & Corruption. From Newt Gingrich’s American Solutions

It's not hard to argue that government reform is taking a big step in the wrong direction when the Government Oversight & Reform Committee Chairman Ed Towns is doing everything in his power to stop an investigation into sweetheart mortgage deals issued by Countrywide Financial to Sens. Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad. The Ranking Committee Member Darrell Issa has been leading the charge for a formal House investigation, but his efforts have resulted in Rep. Towns literally locking Rep. Issa out of the process. Rep. Towns told Rep. Issa and other Republican committee members today that the locks on the doors of the committee room had been changed and that they wouldn't be getting a key despite the fact the room for the Oversight & Reform Committee was paid for and is maintained by our taxpayer dollars.

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House Bill Raises, Not Lowers, Health Care Costs
Posted October 22nd, 2009 at 12.29pm by The Heritage Foundation
The Chief Actuary in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the Obama Health and Human Services department issued a memorandum late yesterday looking at the potential impact of the House health reform legislation (H.R. 3200). As the Associated Press and other media outlets have been reporting, the study shows that- among other things- the legislation would, as President Obama promised, bend the health care cost curve … but in the wrong direction.

The findings suggest that if the House legislation were enacted, President Obama would be breaking his long standing promise that reform would reduce rapidly growing health care costs. Although the President has continually argued that Americans spend too much on health care, and that under reform they would spend less, the new HHS report finds the opposite is likely to occur under the House legislation. Here are some key findings from the HHS memorandum:

• The legislation would increase total national health expenditures in the U.S. by about 2.1 percent during the period between 2010 and 2019.
• As a share of gross domestic product (GDP) health care spending would grow to 21.3 percent compared to 20.8 estimated under current law.
  
• The bill carries a price tag of about $1 trillion dollars (from 2013 to 2019), which does not even represent a full 10-year cost estimate.
  
• The measure is likely to deliver only small savings despite the many provisions intended to reduce the growth in health care costs.
  
• While the proposal might cover 34 million uninsured it would still leave 23 million people without coverage, including as many as 18 million Americans who would remain uninsured and face a new tax penalty.
  
• More than 50 percent of the new coverage gains under the bill (18 million out of 34 million) would come from expansions in the Medicaid program.
  
• 40 percent of those obtaining coverage through a newly established health insurance exchange could be enrolled in the public option.
  
• Cuts to the popular Medicare Advantage program for seniors could have the effect of reducing enrollment by 64 percent, with projected enrollment in 2014 falling from 13.2 million to only 4.7 million seniors.
  
• And, all told, the plan puts new strains on health care providers which could lead to price increases, increased cost-shifting onto the privately insured, and/or compromised access to high quality care.

In sum, the findings in the report aren’t pretty. Let’s just hope the White House and Democrats in Congress got the memo.
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Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky
Did you ever say, “How can American have changed so much in such a short time?” Here’s the key. Learn how Communists, when they couldn’t foment revolution in the ‘60s, changed their tactics and began practicing the neo-Marxist tactics of the Alinskys.

"True revolutionaries do not flaunt their radicalism, Alinsky taught. They cut their hair, put on suits and infiltrate the system from within. Alinsky viewed revolution as a slow, patient process. The trick was to penetrate existing institutions such as churches, unions and political parties....

Today we’ll print a few excerpts from chapter 5, Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky, titled 5. Communication [Notice the emphasis on conflict, dialogue, relationships, etc. Team "service" is essential to building strong relationships through "common involvements"]

"And so the guided questioning goes on without anyone losing face or being left out of the decision-making. Every weakness of every proposed tactic is probed by questions.... Is this manipulation? Certainly...." p.88

"One of the factors that changes what you can and can't communicate is relationships. There are sensitive areas that one does not touch until there is a strong personal relationship based on common involvements. Otherwise the other party turns off and literally does not hear....

"Conversely, if you have a good relationship, he is very receptive.... For example, I have always believed that birth control and abortion are personal rights to be exercised by the individual. If, in my early days when I organized... neighborhood in Chicago, which was 95 per cent Roman Catholic, I had tried to communicate this, even through the experience of the residents, whose economic plight was aggravated by large families, that would have been the end of my relationship with the community. That instant I would have been stamped as an enemy of the church and all communication would have ceased.

"Some years later, after establishing solid relationships, I was free to talk about anything.... By then the argument was no longer limited to such questions as, 'How much longer do you think the Catholic Church can hang on to this archaic notion and still survive?' ...the subject and nature of the discussion would have been unthinkable without that solid relationship." pp.93-94

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Merkley tries to dilute 'Audit the Fed' legislation
Sen. Merkley (D-OR) tries to dilute bill requiring government financial disclosure, audit of Federal Reserve Legislation that would bring a full audit of the Federal Reserve Bank, Congressman Ron Paul's H.R. 1207 and its Senate companion S. 604, has gained strong grassroots support and built tremendous pressure on banking special interests.

But Oregon’s Sen. Merkely is a co-sponsor of the Federal Reserve Accountability Act, an attempted compromise on the issue of transparency for America's secretive central bank. The bill would permit an audit of the Fed's actions in the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and similar high profile bailouts, but would not allow Congress to review the Fed's inflation of the money supply or the its agreements with foreign central banks.

We must audit the Feds in order to ensure their accountability. Write Sens. Merkley and Wyden and tell them NO! on S. 1830 and YES! on S. 604. Make the secretive Federal Reserve accountable!

Sen. Roy Wyden (D) - DC (202) 224-5244, DC Fax (202) 228-2717, Salem (503) 589-4555
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D) - DC (202) 224-3753, Salem (503) 362-8102

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