Falcon:
One of the main causes for the fuel prices going up is the dollar falling in value because the democrats believe, as Obama the way out of the recession is to just print more worthless dollars which does nothing but ruin the buying power of the dollar. They are flooding the world with worthless dollars having no value and the worst is yet to come.
Of course this means it buys less at more cost for the consumer whom has taken it in the rear end from the democrats and Obama since 2008. The administration has done nothing to help the middle class since 2008 but it rescured Wall Street and the big banks immediately.
While favoring unions with special interest benefits not available to the general work force which far out weighs the unions who paid for Obama’s victory with money and votes in return for special favors.
Without a doubt this administration is the most stagnat in the history of the United States. Nothing or no one other than the rich, unions and other non-producers have benefitted from Obama and his false promises and of course those special interest on the fringes of society are also included in Obama’s chosen few.
TR
Category: Letters to Falcon
Falcon:
People should realize that when it comes to a budget the democrats don’t want one and never want to be held responsible for their reckless and wasteful spending. Again, they are harping about Republicans wanting to cut Social Security and Medicare when it’s nothing more than democratic lies as usual in cahoots with the press and other liberal propaganda. Just wait and see what Obamacare does to our current Medicare benefits when services will be cut and determined by some deadbeat bureaucrat in Washington. Democrats blindly voted for Obamacare which by 2016 will cost the average working family $20,000 annually, that’s the cost that’s been in the free press lately. IRS: Cheapest Obamacare Plan Will Be $20,000 Per Family.
This information won’t be found in the mainline news or any left wing news media because they constantly try to hide administration lies and propaganda from the public.
Here is what Paul Ryan had to say about the democratic propaganda charges against the Republicans: “Republicans argue they have not put forth a plan to take away benefits to Americans already in the system and that has never been their plan – much like they did against similar attacks by the Obama campaign during the elections.
“No one is suggesting that Medicare and Social Security makes you a taker. These are people like my mom who worked hard, paid her taxes and now is collecting a benefit that she paid for. No one is suggesting people like my mom is a taker,” Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the House Budget chairman and the Republican Party’s 2012 vice-presidential nominee, told NBC a few weeks ago.
Trusting the current administration is similar to trusting the horse the Greeks made that was rolled into Troy. Americans already have the biggest wooden horse known to man, Obamacare that will break the backs of most working Americans. See the above predicted cost of Obamacare in 2016.
Remember those who voted for Obama, you’ve made the wrong decision twice allowing him to further put our children and grandchildren deeper and deeper in debt, with a future of few jobs and a plenty of despair on the horizon. Our America is being destroyed from within by this administration and liberalism.
Just look at Burlington and you will see what democrats destroy when they control the local politics. When democrats are in charge it’s just one failure after another. There has been little to no success with city management here in Burlington for years because of union mentality (incapable) coupled with teacher mentality (incapable). Union people have no business trying to run a city or a school system. Burlington is dying on the vine because of union mentality. Unions are fine in the private sector but in government their immoral to the bone. Unions are of the main reason schools in Iowa are nothing if not stagnate at best.
FD
Falcon:
Below are a couple of statements by Panetta about the Benghazi attacks.
Panetta said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” the U.S. had intelligence about activity among extremist groups but “didn’t have enough time” to respond.
He said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the Obama administration had no warning about the attack, despite U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens’ requests in the prior weeks for more security.
My question is, just how many weeks notice did the administration need before they could have beefed up protection, per Chris Stevens continued requests at Benghazi?
JH
News from the Hill…
This week was Southeast Iowa Great River Days at the capitol. Part of the group was made up of High School Juniors from the Southeastern Community College Program, M Power U. They gave three different presentations on their position on fuel tax, sales/use tax on purchases of goods over the internet and education reform. While I may disagree with their positions, I think that the young people did a great job in making their presentations and speaking to the audience. I continue to be impressed with the quality of students in the M Power U. This is a great program with good opportunities for those who participate in the program to witness the importance of being involved.
Fuel Tax…
Presently in the Iowa House no bill has been filed to increase the State fuel tax. But there seems to be much discussion with people around the state of Iowa. The discussions people have with me reflect that many different organizations support an increase to the fuel tax, but many people do not. Federal mandated fuel efficiency vehicles have flattened out the fuel tax revenues for the road use tax fund. At the same time inflation is increasing the cost of construction and repair. Some say the only solution is to increase the revenue by a tax increase. That solution begs the question what will we do when that increase is no longer enough? It is unclear what will be done with the fuel tax, but it is clear to me that if the only solution going forward is to increase the fuel tax, that is only short term solution for an ongoing problem. There needs to be better efficiencies in the IDOT planning, there should never be road use tax money used for bicycle trails, there needs to be a better long term plan for a stable revenue stream and finally we should look for ways to decrease some other tax that Iowans pay.
Education funding Presentation…
Wednesday the Legislative Services Agency gave a presentation to the Ways and Means Committee on School Finance Formula Funding Review and the primary focus was on Property Tax implications. State funding to K-12 School aid for this fiscal year is 2.6537 billion dollars or 42% of the state general fund budget. The total amount of Funding for K-12 education from local property taxes equal 2.0646 billion dollars state wide. The per pupil foundation formula that is set by the state is 6,001 dollars for each student. This is arrived at by a mixture local property taxes and state aid, which comes from taxes paid to the state. There is additional funding available outside the foundation formula, which may come from property taxes, income surtax, sales tax and federal aid. Based on the Department of Management’s FY 2012 Estimated General Operating Funds for Elementary and Secondary Education total of $4.887 billion (State/local/federal), the per pupil amount is approximately $10,321. This is the most money taxpayers have ever spent on education.
Federal Income Tax…
On Monday, January 28, the House Ways and Means Committee passed HSB 38, which has now become HF 110. This bill either couples or decouples Iowa Income taxes with the Federal Income Tax changes. The bill that passed couples with all of the Federal changes with the exception of bonus depreciation. Personally I would prefer coupling with bonus depreciation also. However, the state has not coupled with this for several years and our depreciation schedules are all messed up. The impact of conforming to the federal changes resulted in a reduction in state revenues of $24.8 million for FY13 and $35.4 million for FY14. The previous figures do not include bonus depreciation for which the bill does not couple. Bonus depreciation coupling would have resulted in additional reduction of revenue in the amount of $36 million for FY13 and $28.6 million for FY14. While coupling is a reduction to state revenues it is a net gain to tax payers. I always place tax payer’s interest ahead of tax receivers. There seems to be enough people looking out for the tax receivers. The Senate has passed a similar bill out of their Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday, so it appears that one of the chambers will pass their bill out and send it over to the other chamber and the bill can land on the Governor’s desk for signing soon. It is important for our taxpayers and tax preparers know how Iowa will couple with the Federal Tax changes.
“A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.” – Theodore Roosevelt
For more information on these and other bills: www.legis.iowa.gov
-Tom Sands
Falcon:
I see where Obama is blasting Fox news again because they are basically the only media that haven’t endorsed Obama and his henchmen and haven’t constantly lied about his administration.
Just think about it, we have a president that has never run a business, been in the medical profession, never worked for a business, never created anything, not an accountant, never worked in immigration, won a Nobel Peace Prize for doing nothing and if you really dig into his past that isn’t sealed, you’ll find nothing that would even qualify him for as much as a dog catcher. Only in America could a person so totally unexceptional and unknowledgeable be in the position he’s currently in.
This unknown has taken it upon himself to cobble together Obamacare, loan trillions to solar energy companies that have all gone belly up, given taxpayer money to foreign companies, bailed out Wall Street, got a free Nobel Prize based on nothing he ever did for humanity, has allowed illegal aliens to live in our country for no reason other than it’s on his agenda, basically he’s working off a wish list on how to destroy America.
Yet this guy has flim flamed the major television networks, PBS, most major news magazines that are still being published, most of the main newspapers, Nobel Prize committee, Time magazine with a few exceptions and basically standing alone against this unqualified person who’s President, we have Fox News plus the majority of talk radio who have all been fair to Obama by not lying about him as have all those who think he’s some type of Messiah rather than a Flim Flam Man that’s made dunces out of all of them. He’s used as filler for 60 Minutes and ABC is the White House news outlet. Everything about Obama is basically a lie and as much a fantasy as could be produced by Disney Land and/or Hollywood.
Maybe he should get an Academy Award for his performance because he’s sure fooled a mess of liberal non-thinkers.
SD
Falcon:
I see where the Media Research Center has stated ABC news is nothing more than the press office of the Obama administration. Stating they are and embarrassment to the profession. Instead of telling Americans the truth about the administration’s reckless spending binge, the tax-happy liberal media are toeing the party line; raise taxes on the ‘wealthy’ and the crisis will be averted.
MRC goes on to say, “No serious news organization could possibly commit 17 times more coverage to touting tax hikes as the solution to this crisis than spending cuts,” as did ABC.
The coverage given by ABC’s Diane Sawyer just goes to show how biased-information is conveyed to the ignorant and unknowing public to skew their thinking about Obama and his multitude of mistakes starting on five years of agenda driven foul-ups that are slowly destroying our Republic.
LH
Categories
WBFD Embarrassment
Falcon,
You have to ask yourselves how long will the citizens of West Burlington will stand for the embarrassments?
For years it was the police department that was the blemish on the city with its lying and stealing officers and some the Chiefs that failed the city. The city has made great strides in making it a respected department and looked upon with pride and knowing that when you have to deal with the police officers you are treated with respect, fairness and caring officers.
The city hired a new Fire chief to clean up and make sure the fire department would be run with proper integrity that fire fighters and citizens deserve. The fire chief has spent large amounts of money on new equipment and training for the fire department personnel. It is known that one firefighter use to take the fire departments vehicles out by him for joy rides. Others were using the department’s equipment for personal use at home. The chief has increased the departments staffing after so many people had quit due to the corrupt actions of a few.
A few fire fighters are doing things that sound great for the city but are being done as a self-serving intention. The city has a firefighter who has made it quite clear that he wrote the grant for himself so he could pay for his college tuition at the University of Iowa to be a lawyer and that he did not have any concern for the city or the department. Now he wants to hold the city up by using extortion tactics and demands for what he believes is his money. He cares nothing about his community, fellow fire fighters, and the citizens of our community. He claims he is concerned about his reputation and that the council embarrassed him publicly. It is a little late for that since he has already embarrassed himself for the last several years. Being a small community a large portion of the citizens already know about the things he has done without the city council mentioning it.
Lawyers are already made fun of with jokes about their reputations. You do not need the sheep skin for that to happen. You have embarrassed yourself the department, the city and its citizens. We receive and are often the butt of jokes due to your actions. As a citizen of West Burlington should I sue you for the embarrassment you have caused to others and me? You would find that unfair!
– Embarrassed
News from the Hill…
Bills are slowly getting filed and assigned to all the different committees. I was asked by someone from back home “What is the process involved for a bill to become law.” It is a lengthy process and space does not allow an explanation. However, here is a link that explains the bill process fairly well for those who may be interested.
https://www.legis.iowa.gov/DOCS/Resources/HowABillBecomesALaw.pdf
Your opinion matters…
Your opinion is very important to me and allows me to serve you better. We may not always agree, but if I do not know what your stance is I cannot accurately represent you. Many of you contact me by email, written letters and phone calls or show up in person to a legislative forum. The method you use is not important, just stay involved and let me know your points or opinions. This is my eleventh year in the Iowa House and many of you contact me regularly on issues. However, each week it seems we hear from some new people, which is always great. Different bills that have become law are directly related to ideas from people back home have had and have shared them with me. I was able to get them drafted into bill form and passed through the process for them to become law. Other times there have been what sounded like a good idea, but for one reason or the other it was not workable into law. The point is sharing your ideas does matter and I will do what I can to research the matter to see if it has merit in becoming law. But, I do want to warn you, I am not one who thinks our code of law should just grow for the sake of growing. We have too many useless laws on the books now, but there is always room for some good thoughtful ideas that run in union with our constitution. Sometimes that best idea is getting rid of a bad law that is presently in the Iowa Code.
Visitors on the Hill…
This week was Muscatine Day on Wednesday, January 23. There were about twenty individuals here at the state capitol visiting from the Muscatine area. This is a great way for people from back home to come to the capitol and see firsthand how government works. Also it is a way for a city to highlight everything it has to offer. Different communities, counties and/or regions do this with much success. Next week is Southeast Iowa Great River Days. There will be over a hundred people here from Louisa, Des Moines, Lee and Henry Counties highlighting Southeast Iowa. There also will be a group in conjunction with Great River Days from the program Empower U. This group is made up of juniors from several different high schools in Southeast Iowa. They will be making some presentations in front of some legislators on ideas they have for laws. This is a great program for our youth to witness the importance of being involved.
Ways and Means action…
One of the bills that were assigned to a subcommittee this week in the House Ways and Means committee is HSB 38. This bill deals with the Federal Tax Code changes that our Federal Government made on New Year’s Eve. Each year there are changes made at the Federal level on Income Taxes and the state has to decide if we are going to couple, go along with, or decouple, not allow, these changes on our State of Iowa Income Tax forms. The most important thing with this bill is it needs to move quickly, so all of our Income Tax preparers and Income Tax payers know what the rules are. The Federal Government made some of the changes retroactive to Tax Year 2012, so time is of the essence. The sub-committee meeting is set for Thursday afternoon and we will run this bill out of the ways and Means Committee on Monday, January 28.
Beginning each Day…
At the beginning of each day the first thing we do, once the Speaker brings his gavel down to bring us to order, is pray and then give our Pledge to the United States Flag. These might be little items, but they have large implications that help us to remember that it is God who leads us and the sacrifices that all of our veterans have made to preserve the liberties and freedoms we all share. I can’t think of a better way to start our day.
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” – Abraham Lincoln
For more information on these and other bills: www.legis.iowa.gov
-Tom Sands
Falcon:
Here’s a good quote from Ben Franklin regarding liberty that pretty much fits what our government and Obama have been trying to do with the 2nd amendment
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
TY
Falcon:
Obama forgot to mention in his news conference yesterday that thirty-six unborn children were killed by the medical profession on the same day that 20 were gunned down at a school in Connecticut.
There were thirty-six unborn babies murdered by abortion on the same day in Connecticut but for some reason Obama didn’t mention these killings that weren’t committed by guns nor were the killers mentally ill as the school shooter was but fully trained to kill unborn babies the same as an assassin is trained to kill only more inhumane.
No matter what gun control there may be the criminal crowd will always have guns because they don’t register their guns as do law abiding citizens. This will leave the average American defenseless against the criminals who will never register or make known how many or what kind of guns are in their possession.
There are approximately 1,000,000 unborn babies murdered in the U.S. every year, considerable more than children killed by guns by a long shot. Why does Obama not talk about the 1,000,000 that he himself condones as being killed at Planned Parenthood as well as hospitals and clinics all across the country on a yearly basis?
Since Obama has been in office between 4 and 5 million babies have been murdered in the United States under the guise of freedom of choice of course without the consent of the unborn babies that end up as so much trash in the dumps across America.
Just think before Obama leaves office America will have killed many more babies than Hitler killed Jews during WWII, at least 2 million more dead babies, at least.
DS