Learning Essential Grassroots Tools for Victory in 2012
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Yours in Hope & Action,
Pam Wohlschlegel
C0-Founder and County Coordinator
Palm Beach County Tea Party
Obama Administration Energy Obstructionism- Part II
There are so many examples demonstrating that this administration policy of anti-energy policy for the United States. Here is yet another example of this administrations agenda to drive energy prices higher and make us dependent on foreign energy sources when we have within our own indigenous country vast sources of energy.
There is current a pipeline trying to be developed by TransCanada, a large Canadian pipeline and energy company. The name of this pipeline is called the Keystone XL pipeline which if built, could deliver 830,000 barrels of crude oil a day from the tar sands of Alberta to refineries in Oklahoma and Texas. Just to give you an idea of how much oil this represents, Oman a country in the Middle East produces about this much oil! TransCanada estimates that this would bring $20 billion in investment to the US along with 13,000 jobs with sub-suppliers engaging another 118,000 jobs.
There is one big hurdle—the US State Department. Getting approval has proven to be extremely difficult in getting the 1,170 mile underground (that’s right underground so it would not be an eyesore or serve as an obstruction to some rare animal in it’s path)pipeline approved. In fact, TransCanada filed for a permit in 2008—that right almost four years ago. After dozens upon dozens of meetings, hundreds of thousands of comments, and extensive interaction with the EPA, DOT, USDA, DOI, DOE and numerous other federal and state agencies, finally an environmental impact statement was finally issued stating that the pipeline posed little risk to the environment.
The issuance of this EIS was in April of 2010. But, the EPA cried foul. Sixteen months later, another impact statement was produced. The first volume of the EIS was more than 500 pages, and there were actually eight volumes. Once again, in the second report, the conclusion was that the pipeline posed no significant impact to the environment.
The State Department is the ruling authority for the final permitting. After the submission and approval of the second EIS, the State Department issued a press release stating that the impact statement now will be followed by a 90 day review to “determine if the proposed project is in the national interest.”
During this time period, the State Department will consult with at least eight agencies identified in President Obama’s executive order to obtain their views. The State Department will also solicit public comments and meetings in at least six states through which the proposed pipeline will pass.
Meanwhile, separately, the “greenies” are gearing up for a fight with the Administration that they feel they were not given an ample opportunity to resist the project and state their opposition. There actually have been days of protests outside the White House resulting in arrests of a number of these greenies. The Sierra Club is warning President Obama that is will not mobilize its environmental voter base if he approves the project.
We yet do not know where Obama will come down on this; however don’t hold your breath. On the one hand he has driven unemployment to unprecedented levels even after clearly his fiscal stimulus give away has failed. This was substantiated just today when the White House projects unemployment to remain above 9% throughout calendar year 2012! What a sad state of affairs—we need energy security, we need jobs, and this kind of opposition goes on right before our very eyes.
Ladies and gentlemen, change is not only desired it is a necessity—get out and vote in November 2012 and make some real change—the Presidency and the Senate must be placed in the hands of people that will return our nation to greatness!
Obama Administration Energy Obstructionism
I have in the past written a number of articles on the current administrations “anti-energy” policy. Regardless of what this administration says, it is imperative to watch what they do because their actions are generally diametrically opposite to what they say!
Consider the recent discovery by ExxonMobil of the Julia oil field in the Gulf of Mexico. The field is believed to hold more than 700 million barrels of oil and gas equivalent. Exploiting the newly discovered field would yield billions of dollars for both ExxonMobil and royalties paid to the US government, not to mention the creation of thousands of jobs. In fact, a 1 billion barrel field could generate around $10.95 billion in government royalties—Mr. Obama—that is revenues—like taxes! Mr. Obama—this is called becoming “energy independent” and less dependent on the 60% of our oil that we now import from hostile people that want to do ill will to the United States. Get it!
Obama’s Interior Department is fighting this development. The Interior Department regulates offshore drilling and they are claiming that Exxon’s leases have expired and the company hasn’t’ met the requirements for an extension. In this industry, the re-instatement of leases has been in the past almost a rubber stamp, but for whatever reason, this is not the case for the Julia field. This discovery is one of the largest ever.
There is currently a court battle in place and the government is denying the oil company’s lease on the field, despite it being the biggest oil find ever! Furthermore, the signal to the industry that the Interior Department’s current position is extremely damaging for oil producers—typical Obama administration behavior—that is create as much uncertainty for industry so they do nothing—don’t invest, don’t create jobs—it is the same signal that they continue to send industry either through this kind of governmental restrictions or EPA rulings or nationalized healthcare. Same old same old.
Please find one of the best articles that I have recently read that appeared in today’s Wall Street Journal opinion page. The fallacy of “green energy” producing jobs has been proven over and over—it doesn’t—in fact, it costs jobs as these projects do not require nearly the labor to build as conventional sources plus the high cost of subsidy pulls money from the economy that private industry otherwise would invest in real wealth producing ventures that would in fact produce jobs. The cost of energy resulting from these green technologies also drive companies to move overseas for production due to higher electricity costs all of which diminish the number of US jobs!
Please read this article–it is very good!
By STEPHEN MOORE WSJ Opinion Section September 2, 2011
CLICK HERE for the article.
Transportation prevarication
On August 31, 2011 President Obama urged Congress to extend the Surface Transportation Bill saying that if Congress failed to do so “over 4,000 workers will be immediately furloughed without pay”.
To understand why the claimed loss of jobs is questionable one has to examine how those jobs are funded.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, funding for transportation construction projects mostly comes from the Highway Trust Fund which is funded by the gasoline tax included in the expiring Surface Transportation law.
Annual spending from the Highway Trust Fund is largely controlled by limitations on the amount of contract authority that can be obligated in a particular year, and such obligation limitations are customarily set in annual appropriation acts, not the Surface Transportation law.
The only thing immediately reduced by failure to extend the law is the gasoline tax that funds the Highway Trust Fund.
Most contracts for transportation construction are not awarded by the federal government and the federal government is therefore not a party to the contracts and not in a position to cancel the contracts and furlough the workers.
The funds for transportation construction projects are given by the federal Transportation Department to the states. In Palm Beach County the funds for construction are given to the county Engineering and Public Works Department. That department solicits bids and awards contracts for the construction. Those contracts are not awarded until the funds are transferred to the county.
Therefore, while a lack of funds in the Highway Trust Fund can impact the implementation of future construction projects, it has no impact on ongoing projects for which funds have already been received. Workers presently employed on projects previously awarded are not impacted by Congress’ action on the gasoline tax.
A petulant President may be able to convince the county to terminate a contract using threats of some adverse action, but that termination would not be because the Congress failed to pass a bill. And a contractor faced with such a cancellation is entitled to receive termination costs for all of the expenses incurred up to the date of the cancellation including equipment and overhead costs that often add up to close to the original contract cost.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, there are still some funds, maybe $10 billion, in the Highway Trust fund so money can continue to go to the states for construction jobs for some time. And workers can continue to be added to new construction projects.
And if money for transportation construction is provided by the stimulus funds already appropriated, maybe we can let the gasoline tax expire and find a way to get along with a lower price at the gas pump.
How Long Can We Ignore Our National Debt?
It continues to amaze me how grown men and women in Congress can continue down the path to disaster by taking no serious action on our debt issue. This has to go down as one of the most irresponsible and despicable behaviors of our President and Congress in our nation’s history. And where are the young folks who are going to have to bear this burden? They are nowhere to be seen.
A friend recently sent me an email to better characterize the recent “cuts” that Congress made. When you see the numbers it pretty much puts everything in perspective when looking at our spending problem—and THAT is the problem—yes, federal revenues are down due to an impotent growth strategy (s) that the current administration is promoting, but the real problem is spending. We all know this clearly.
Here are the numbers for this fiscal year:
US Tax Revenues: $2,170,000,000,000
Federal Budget: $3,820,000,000,000
New Debt: $1,650,000,000,000
National Debt: $14,272,000,000,000
Proposed Budget Cuts $38,500,000,000
Now just remove eight (8) zeros and pretend this is your family budget to get a real feel for how our gutless Congress and President acted a few months ago in “cutting” spending.
Annual Family Income: $21,700
Money the Family Spent: $38,200
New Debt on the Credit Card $16,500
Balance on the CC $142,710
Total Budget Cut $385
So you see, the budget cuts that were made are actually far less than the debt service even on the new debt on the credit card for the year—not to mention the debt service on the total outstanding balance. Would we get away with running our family budgets this way? Why should our elected officials get away with managing “our” money this way?
Let’s take a look at our total debt– $14,587 trillion (it is actually higher than reflected above in the numbers). This can be divided into public debt, that is, the Treasury securities held by individuals, financial institutions, and foreign governments AND the intra-government debt, the sum of Treasury bonds held by agencies of the federal government, principally the so-called Social Security Trust Fund. The liabilities represent the future pensions, health care, social security payments, etc that are promised under current legislation—both are REAL obligations.
The split between public debt and intra-governmental debt is $9.924 trillion and $4.666 trillion respectively. This is over 300 million times the country’s median household income! Stacked as dollar bills, it would reach 920,953 miles high, almost four times as far from Earth as the moon. The real issue here is the debt’s size relative to gross domestic product—what this is saying is no different than the way we individually measure our own debt. Translated, it is our personal debts measured against our income. The GDP of the US was $15 trillion at the end of the first quarter in 2011. This translates to making our public debt at 66.1% of GDP and the intra-governmental debt at 31.1%. Total debt is now 97.2% of GDP and growing!
The scary part is of course the size but the scarier part is the rate of growth. For example, our debt in 1946 was $269 billion and 14 years later in 1960 it was $286 billion. The economy during these years grew rapidly so that in 1960, the debt was only 58% of GDP.
In the 1970’s under Paul Volcker as Fed chief, the debt began its soaring. Why? Quite simple—Washington continued to increase spending faster than government revenues increased (Note: revenues increased a huge 99.4% in the 1980’s). The debt was 58% of GDP in 1990, a full 24 percentage points above its 1980 lows. It continued to increase dramatically in the early 1990’s under President Bill Clinton reaching 68% of GDP in 1994.
But, Newt and the republican Congress came into power, and represented the first time the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress since 1954. In the next six years, while revenues increased 61%, federal outlays increased ONLY 22%! As a result, the debt relative to GDP declined between 1994 and 2000 to 57% from 68%–and in 1998-2000 actually showed the first surpluses in the federal budget in over 30 years. I have written about this before—it was not due to Bill Clinton’s policies—it was due to the republican controlled house under Newt Gingrich-and their ability to cut spending—and move Clinton to the center. That is fact!
In 2001 following the collapse of the dot com bubble and rising unemployment, the 2003 debt to GDP ratio had risen to 61.7% Many did and continue to blame the Bush tax cuts for this however, that is simply wrong. As I have written many times in the past—when you cut rates, tax revenues actually increase because companies and individual entrepreneurs go out and invest, create jobs, and more jobs and healthier economies produce more wealth, which in turn generates more tax revenues. This is exactly what happened after the Bush tax cuts were put into place. Federal revenues before the Bush tax cuts were put into place declined 12% in the early part of the decade, but when the tax cuts were implemented in 2003, the economy began to grow strongly and federal revenues in the next four years grew by a staggering 44% while unemployment fell to 4.2% from 6.2%. Federal outlays increased during these years by a meager 26.4% and debt-to GDP ratio increased to 64.8% by 2007, which was below what it had been in 1994 (read this Mr. Obama and Nancy P, and Harry R).
In 2008, the debt-to GDP ratio soared to 67.7%. A year later, under President Obama, it took another leap to 84.4%, a year later to 93.8% and it is headed real quickly to 100%.
No one expects to pay off our $14 trillion debt, but we do expect our government officials to get a handle on our debt issue and put into place a comprehensive spending cutting plan that will get our debt- to –GDP ratio back down to historic levels. Specifically, they must not only stop the rate of growth, they must reduce the rate of growth over the next ten years. I have represented in the past that we should have a debt plan to reduce our debt by $1 trillion/year for the next 10 years!
This can ONLY happen if the American electorate sends a solid message in November 2012 and do exactly what they did in November of 2010. This is our system—this is our way to effect “change”.
Smart Meter???
There is continual interest, speculation and concern surrounding Smart Meters and Smart Meter Grids. The first Florida community to resist the implementation of Smart Meters that I have heard of is Lakeshore Neighbor’s Association, Lakeland, FL. I have not yet received the results of their August 15, 2011 6:00pm meeting at City Hall. I will post updates. The purpose of this post is to invite dialog and provide resource information.
Florida Power and Light provides web sites www.fpl.com/energysmartflorida and www.fpl.com/contents/privacy_policy.shtml. These sites will suggest that there are benefits including improving the efficiency of meter reading and billing, increasing the quality of customer service by eliminating the need for estimated bills, saving staff time and fuel, preventing recording errors and minimizing the need for personnel to go on the property.
The privacy concerns from citizens are denied by FPL. They will tell you they only monitor how much electric you use, not how you use it. When I asked them how they interface with Grid Glo I was referred to a supervisor. I am still waiting for a reply. I urge you to research gridglo.com. The company is located in Delray Beach, Fl. According to the web site, utility companies are rapidly installing smart meters resulting in massive amounts of data being gathered. Grid Glo assigns an EPM score, (Energy People Meter) which is a real time digital fingerprint of people’s energy use.
Web sites opposing Smart Meters continue to grow. Concerns over violations of our fourth amendment persist: www.stopsmartmeters.wordpress.com and www.refusesmartmeter.com. You can also contact florida@bansmartmeter.com for local information.
To date FPL has not addressed the health concerns. What are the risks from the microwave radiation are detailed by Dr. Zory R. Glaser Ph.D. www.zoryglaser.com and “The Sage Report sagereports.com/smart-meter-rf . Excerpt from the Sage Report *the reflectivity of polished metal surfaces is usually quite high (such as stainless steel and polished metal surfaces typical in kitchens.
In my next post I hope to have the answers to:
Do Smart Meters have a second antenna that will eventually talk to my appliances? Will my washer and refrigerator report me? Use www.govtrack.us and read bill S398 Implementation of National Consensus Appliance Agreements Act of 2011, HR 2208 Smart Grid Advancement Act of 2011 and HR 2748 Smart Electronics Act.
Are Smart Meters UL (Underwriters Laboratory) listed and certified? Of the people I have talked to they do not see the UL tag on their meters.
Some Smart Meters are being installed with prior notice to the home owner and some meters are installed without any prior notice. In my next post I hope to have photo examples of both. If you search google you can see the different types now available. Ask your family and friends to look at their own house and submit pictures.
Additional Resources:
www.augustreview.com/issues/technocracy
Note: If Safari does not bring you to these sites try using Firefox or Crome.
Many thanks to those who attended America Supports Israel
We thank all the patriotic Americans who marched with us last night at our America supports Israel parade. Many members of The Palm Beach County Tea Party and the 912 Party attended. Speakers included Pastor Bray of the Christ Fellowship Church and Luis Fleischman of the Jewish Community Relations Council. A special thank you to Christ Fellowship for their kindness and generosity.
With Love & Appreciation
Barbara & Mel Grossman & Ellen & Terry Brady
Pictures from Fred and Ed:
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Heritage Congressional Scorecard
Heritage Action for America, a sister organization to The Heritage Foundation, produces a congressional scorecard for all Senators and Representatives, based on the bills they sponsor as well as how they voted on those bills of particular interest to conservatives.
In the most recent scorecard, there were 19 Senate bills and 30 House bills tracked. Of our local delegation of 5 Congressmen and our US Senators, Marco Rubio garnered the highest score of 93 (of 100), followed by Allen West with 74 and Tom Rooney with 63. The Democrats were far behind with Bill Nelson and Alcee Hastings tied at 10, Ted Deutch at 7, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz bringing up the rear with a score of 4 out of 100.
All the scores for Florida can be found at Heritage Action for America. Click on the names of the Congressman to see how they voted on the relevant bills.
Marco Rubio’s votes aligned with Heritage on 18 of the 19 bills. The one where he differed was “S2-1011, Undermine Ability of Senators to Block Unanimous Consent: Change the rules of the Senate to undermine the ability of Senators to prevent legislation from passing by unanimous consent (i.e., eliminates so-called “secret holds”).” He voted yes.
Allen West aligned on 23 of the 30 House bills, differing on H103, H143, H384, H555, H633, H677, and H690. The last two were involved with the debt limit increase deal which the Congressman supported but Heritage did not.
Tom Rooney aligned on 20 of the 30, differing on H103, H143, H179, H275, H384, H424, H455, H491, H677 and H690.
Click on the bill numbers for the Heritage explanation of the votes.
Unpublished Letter to the Editor of WSJ
This letter was not published by the Wall Street Journal so we are publishing it here on our we website. It is a very well-stated list of concerns about the Debt Ceiling legislation:
Dear Editor:
What is the reader to believe? Paul Ryan’s “Where’s Your Budget, Mr.President?” (Aug 3) fairly asks the president that question as the president and the Congress have pushed huge new costly programs like ObamaCare but they have not produced a budget to pay for them. This budget deal they passed doesn’t cut anything that can be measured and adds at least $7 trillion to the debt. Ryan says that Republicans passed a bill that “cuts more than a dollar for every dollar it increases the debt limit, without raising taxes.” And that Republicans “won the policy debate by securing the first of many spending restraints…” to avoid calamity. Excuse me, but if there is a $2.4 trillion increase in debt this year and much more in the next few years, how can Ryan make those claims? You can’t call many $trillions in new spending (debt) a tax cut! If Ryan can point to any cuts at all they are not from current spending but from cuts in projected increased spending. We are not being treated honestly by the professional politicians or the media.
And the “Super Committee” created in this bill will surely have as their focus ways to increase taxes without having to go through all the trouble of full debate as our Constitution provides and we, the people, are entitled to expect. Whatever they come up with will be offered on a take-it-or-leave-it basis on an up or down vote.
The WSJ and others call this a victory for the TEA parties? This bill being called a victory is the exact opposite of what the TEA parties have expressed in all of our actions all over the country for three years, at least. Cut, Cap and Balance has been our appeal to our elected officials, our representatives, and we got no cut, no cap and not anything near a balanced budget.
George Blumel, Atlantis FL 33462
September 13th Wellington Meeting
Join us for the next meeting of the Palm Beach County Tea Party’s Wellington Chapter, with keynote speakers Mark Meckler and Dawn Wildman, National Coordinators, Tea Party Patriots. Mark and Dawn will share with us their insights on the national tea party movement and what we can do here in Palm Beach County to make a difference in 2012. Question and Answer session to follow their speeches.
DATE: Tuesday, September 13, 2011
TIME: Doors open at 5:30 PM, Buffet at 6:00 PM ($15, Cash Bar); Meeting at 7:00 PM
PLACE: Binks Forest Golf Club, 400 Binks Forest Drive, Wellington, FL 33414
It is important to give Binks an accurate number of attendees. Please click here to RSVP with name and number of buffet and/or meeting attendees: RSVP
Directions to Binks Forest Golf Club
