Presidential Speech to the CBC

Earlier this week, on Sunday, the President spoke before the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington DC. The CBC is an organization that recently visited Fidel Castro and praised him for his warmness and hospitality. Rep Rush (D – IL) referred to Castro as “the ultimate survivor.” The Grover Cleveland Society would like to remind its readers that Fidel Castro has a despicable human rights record. In September, 1986, Dick Capen reported that “[a]ccording to Amnesty International, no other country of Cuba's size has held so many political prisoners for so long under such inhumane circumstances of atrocity and terror.” In 1988, Ricardo Bofill, a Cuban political refugee who spent 12 years in a Cuban prison for speaking about human rights, wrote about Fidel Castro’s treatment of political dissenters in Cuba.

The massive executions, through secret trials without procedural safeguards of any type; the disappearances of the mortal remains of executed political opponents; the imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of opponents, either through kangaroo courts that did not even provide defendants with attorneys or through the so-called ``files of the socially dangerous;'' the tortures, the cruel and degrading treatment, and the inhuman living conditions that officially became known as ``The Secret War of Extermination of Every Form of Deviation or Resistance to the Cuban Governmental Ideology;'' the implacable religious persecution; the discrimination -- apartheid-style -- enforced for reasons of political opinion or religious belief; the denial of freedom of movement and the forced exile of Cubans who live abroad; the total disappearance of freedom of speech, of assembly, of peaceful association, of union rights, and of every civil and political right that are the bases of modern society.

Today, the situation shows sparse improvements. A report from Amnesty International states “It is truly disappointing that Cuba rejected so many recommendations that could have improved respect for human rights in Cuba, a great opportunity has been missed.” According to the report, dated 11 June 2009, Cuba still holds at least 56 “prisoners of conscience,” including human rights activist and physician Oscar Elian Biscet, and journalist Julio Cesar Galvez Rodriquez.
The President told the story of George Henry White, a former slave elected to Congress from the state of North Carolina in 1880. He continued with his repetitive claim that he fixed the economy with the Recovery Act. “So the next time some of these folks come up asking you what the Recovery Act has done, you tell them it has prevented us going into a much worse place. That much we know. That's been confirmed.” Confirmed by whom, and with what data? The President also made his expected pitch for his healthcare plan.
His final subject was on education. President Obama called a good education “a prerequisite for success.” The President stated his agenda to “increase Pell Grants and Perkins Loans and simplify financial aid forms.” While we agree with the President’s stated goals and objectives, we have grave concerns regarding how this speech relates to legislation recently passed by the House of Representatives. On September 17, 2009, the House passed by a nearly party-line vote of 253 – 171, HR 3221. This bill modifies the Higher Education Act of 1965 to eliminate government subsidies on private education loans. Every member of the Congressional Black Caucus voted for the bill, with the exception of Rep Conyers (D – MI), who did not vote. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the “elimination of guaranteed student loans would lead to a comparable increase in direct lending by the government.” The failed policies of this government have already shown a tendency to create shortages of our most needed professionals. According to an Investor’s Business Daily poll, 45% of doctors plan to resign or retire if Congress passes the healthcare overhaul. While the CBO estimates this would lead to a net budgetary savings, the Grover Cleveland Society feels the increase in direct borrowing by prospective students could lead to a dangerous dependence on the government for education. This dependence could lead the government to drive young students into careers they would not have otherwise chosen. GCS is afraid that now that the government is positioning itself to become the only lender in the market of education loans, this dangerous and nationalistic belief could quickly lead to a total government control of the labor market.
For a complete text of President Obama’s Speech, click here.

Transparency?

So far, the only thing transparent about the House Leadership has been their attempts to hide the truth from the voters. Earlier this week, Rep. Greg Walden (R – OR) introduced a discharge petition in the House of Representatives that would force House Speaker Pelosi (D – CA) to take a vote on H Res 554. The petition has 179 votes so far, but needs 218 to pass. House Res 554 is a resolution that will require House bills and conference reports to be posted on the internet for 72 hours before they can be passed. Rep Baird (D – WA) authored the resolution. According to the resolution, its purpose is to “[m]odernize the operations of the House of Representatives”, “[s]low the explosive growth of the $11,000,000,000,000 national debt”, and “[e]nhance public participation in American democracy.”
According to GOP House Leader Boehner, Rep Walz (D – MN) has written a letter to Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer commending them for their “transparency and openness”. Really?
We at the Grover Cleveland Society believe true transparency, not empty promises, are required for the success of our government. We have already seen two major attempts at political censorship from our liberal government leadership on the healthcare issue alone. Back in July, the House leadership issued a stop-payment on all GOP mailing that used unflattering language in referring to the House healthcare bill. More recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid have told health insurance company Humana to stop sending letters to its customers warning them about the healthcare reforms taking place.
The Grover Cleveland Society urges all Americans, conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat, to call their Senators and Representative. If they have not yet signed the petition, ask them why. Take part in the democratic process. You have the right to be heard.
Who has signed the petition? Click here for a full text.

President Obama's G20 Closing Remarks

Earlier today, President Obama made remarks at the closing of the G20 Conference in Pittsburgh, PA. The President has, once again, reminded the world that the United States faced a grave economic situation when he took office. Here at the Grover Cleveland Society, we agree. The economy was in dire straits. However, we do not agree with the Presidents assessment that the actions he has taken have made lasting, positive economic results. He said “[i]t's worth recalling the situation we faced six months ago -- a contracting economy, skyrocketing unemployment, stagnant trade, and a financial system that was nearly frozen. Some were warning of a second Great Depression. But because of the bold and coordinated action that we took, millions of jobs have been saved or created; the decline in output has been stopped; financial markets have come back to life; and we stopped the crisis from spreading further to the developing world.” The President may claim to have saved or created millions of jobs, yet our economy has lost 3.7 million jobs in the time since the President took office(1).
The President continued by stating “we agreed to take concrete steps to move forward with tough, new financial regulations so that crises like this can never happen again.” We at the Grover Cleveland Society believe it was government regulation that caused the crisis. May we remind you of the infamous Community Reinvestment Act (2).
The President made many more points tonight in Pittsburgh. He continued to push his agenda for global governance. “[W]e agreed to reform our system of global economic cooperation and governance. We can no longer meet the challenges of the 21st century economy with 20th century approaches.” He continued with “I've called for a new era of engagement that yields real results for our people -- an era when nations live up to their responsibilities, and act on behalf of our shared security and prosperity.” While we agree that America has a responsibility to the international community, we feel that President Obama’s comments reveal a lack of belief in America’s sovereignty. We have witnessed President Obama gleefully shaking hands and exchanging niceties with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez (3). We have heard him remark that he will meet with foreign dictators without precondition (4). We believe this type of diplomacy is dangerous and hurts our long-term legitimacy as a free republic and a world power. Already, the Iranian government has refused to meet with President Obama without precondition (5). So now Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is setting conditions before he will be willing to meet with the US President? May we remind the President that Iran has an atrocious human rights record (6)? May we also remind President Obama that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a holocaust denier (7)? Is it not embarrassing to any other Americans that a holocaust denier and third-world dictator won’t meet with our President, the man who is supposed to represent the most powerful nation in the world? What type of preconditions would Ahmadinejad have before meeting with President Obama, and would President Obama be willing to agree to them?
Finally, it is interesting to note that the President’s final question was on the subject of sanctions against Iran. “Mr. President. You just mentioned sanctions that have bite. What kinds of sanctions -- and I know you can't get into details -- but what kinds of sanctions at all would have bite with Iran? Do you really think any kind of sanction would have an effect on somebody like Ahmadinejad?” We believe that this question reveals that even the media has acknowledged the ineffectiveness of diplomacy on ruthless dictators, like Ahmadinejad. We at the Grover Cleveland Society hope that the President will realize this as well.
For a full text of President Obama’s speech, click here.
(1) http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet;jsessionid=a230faef6de52265316b
(2) http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo125.html
(3) http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/04/17/2009-04-17_president_obama_meets_hugo_chavez_and_opens_door_to_change_in_cuba_policy.html
(4) www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSFSUbMWenU
(5) http://quickdailyhits.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/obama-mahmoud-can-we-talk-ahmadinejad-only-if-i-set-the-preconditions/
(6) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/09/iran-humanrights
(7) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/21/ahmadinejad-holocaust-den_n_293083.html

While most of the country is focusing on the growing spending and waste in our country, there are several in Washington that are focused on creating positive changes in our nation’s budget. A website called sunshine.gop.gov is attempting to shine the light on government spending, as well as some conservative attempts at real reform.
According to the website, Rep Ron Paul (R – TX) has submitted HR 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act. The purpose of the bill is to insert a paragraph in federal law requiring the Comptroller General to perform an audit of the Governors of the Federal Reserve Board before the end of 2010. HR 1207 was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services on February 26.
Reps Bill Cassidy (R – LA) and Jackie Speier (D – CA) have introduced H Res 440 that will require Congressional Representatives to post all earmark requests on their website within24 hours of making the request, where it will remain for the remainder of the legislative session. H Res 440 was referred to the House Committe on Rules on May 14.
Rep Virginia Foxx (R – NC) has submitted HR 2255, the Unfunded Mandates Information and Transparency Act. This act seeks to improve congressional deliberations regarding unfunded mandates. On May 5, HR 2255 was referred to the House Committe on Oversight and Government Reform as well as the House Committee on Rules.
Now, the question is, if we can pass a $787 Billion spending bill in a few months, why has HR 1207 been sitting in committee since February? Here at The Grover Cleveland Society, we believe in getting involved. Call your Senators and House Representative and let them know where you stand on these issues. Don’t know who your Senators or Representative are? Click here to find out. If you want to track the status of these bills, click here for a great website.

This is the first edition of Piranhas, our spotlight on wasteful legislation! In Piranhas, we at The Grover Cleveland Society will not be focusing on massive spending bills that make the news on a daily basis, you already know about most of them. We will be focusing on smaller pieces of legislation that waste small amounts of your tax dollars on research, subsidies, and programs that have to be federally funded simply because Americans would never voluntarily give their money for such things. Most of you know, a piranha is a type of carnivorous fish that swims in large schools. When they find prey, each fish in the school takes one small bite of the prey. One single bite doesn’t seem like much, but when the rest of the school joins in, the prey can quickly die from a thousand violent bites. Some refer to this type of legislation as Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts, we prefer to call them Piranhas.

Today’s spotlight is on HR 3246, the Advanced Vehicle Technology Act of 2009. This bill appropriates federal funds for a program that provides research for clean automotive technology such as electrification of vehicle systems, energy storage devices, transmission and drivetrains, and much more(1). According to the Congressional Budget Office, HR 3246 would authorize appropriations totaling $2.85 billion over the 2010-2014 period and $423 million after 2014(2). While this bill provides no private sector mandates, it is our opinion that this legislation will ultimately lead to clean energy mandates within the private sector automotive industry that will continue to erode America’s endangered automakers. Let’s be clear, America needs clean energy, but we need economically viable energy solutions that do not come from cutting-edge policy that stifles growth, increases costs on our manufacturers, and ultimately reduces jobs. HR 3246 passed The House of Representatives on September 16, 2009, at 4:06pm 312-114. Click here to see who voted for it.

Know of a bill or other piece of legislation that deserves to be featured in Piranhas? Send us an e-mail.

This is the first entry of the Grover Cleveland Society Blog. Why Grover Cleveland? First, let me be clear, this blog is neither a tribute to a historically obscure American President, nor a historical society designed to educate Americans on the contributions he made to our country. This page is dedicated to the values to which Grover Cleveland courageously held as Mayor of Buffalo, NY, Governor of New York State, and President of the United States: small government, accountability, and conformance to the Constitution.
It’s no surprise that the inaugural post on this blog coincides with the sudden expansion of our Federal Government. Many Americans have become fed up with the constant intrusion into Americans' personal lives. The September, 12 rallies in Washington, DC were merely the latest example of public outrage and demand for a return to the values of our founding fathers.
We will be closely monitoring the actions of Congress and The President. We will bring you documented descriptions of bills as they are submitted by The House and The Senate to include bill texts, amendments, CBO estimates, and commentary.
We will be watching spending. According to the CATO Institute, there are over 1,800 federally subsidized programs. So, to keep our readers informed, we will spotlight some of these programs as we find them.
We will provide commentary on Presidential speeches. Some of the most revealing facts about a person can be discovered by critically analyzing what someone says, and what they might mean.
As you read, I hope that you will be entertained and informed. I will try not to ‘rant and rave’. My purpose is to present intelligent commentary supported by fact, not my personal opinion. The purpose of this website is to educate, not criticize, so please be respectful. I will be submitting articles on the subject of history, economics, and public policy. I welcome differing opinions. If you read an article and have a contrary point of view, feel free to leave a comment or submit a countering article. All posts will be scrutinized for language and content. I will not post offensive material. If you write an article and submit it to me, please ensure your article is factually accurate using references to authoritative documents or reputable resources.