Tag: federal government

Arizona State Legislature Opposes Federalized Elections, Passes Strong Election Integrity Bills

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State Rep. Jake Hoffman

In the wake of Georgia’s passing of a sweeping anti-voter fraud bill into law, Arizona is among the states that has followed suit and passed similar measures to strengthen election integrity, as reported by Breitbart.

On Tuesday, the Arizona State Senate passed HB 2569, which bans the use of private funds for election administration and management. The bill passed in a party-line vote after having previously passed through the State House of Representatives in a similar party-line vote. The bill now heads to the desk of Governor Doug Ducey (R-Ariz.) for his signature.

On Wednesday, the State Senate passed a resolution, HCR 2023, which reaffirmed Arizona’s opposition to the provisions in the federal bill H.R. 1, introduced by Democrats in the United States Congress in an effort to dramatically increase federal control over the nation’s election process. The resolution had already been approved by the State House, with its passage in the State Senate officially codifying it as a formal resolution by the Arizona state legislature.

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Commentary: Too Much of a Unity

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“The city comes in to being for the sake of life, but it continues for the sake of the good life. ” — Aristotle, Politics

“[The Declaration of Independence] was the word, “fitly spoken” which has proved an “apple of gold” to us. The Union, and the Constitution, are the picture of silver, subsequently framed around it. The picture was made, not to conceal, or destroy the apple; but to adorn, and preserve it. The picture was made for the apple — not the apple for the picture.”—Abraham Lincoln, “Fragment on the Constitution and Union”

The crisis of our time requires clear thinking about political means and ends, and the ways they are connected. The two epigraphs above address this central question of practical wisdom—the first from the general perspective of theory, the second as relates to the particular nation of the United States. Both quotations may be familiar to educated conservatives, and particularly to those students of political philosophy broadly associated with the Claremont school of thought. Yet there is a danger that such familiarity may breed, if not contempt, then the forgetfulness that settles on “sonorous phrases” which lapse into clichés. I would like to reconsider these arguments made by Aristotle and Lincoln—along with some related observations by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson—not as hackneyed commonplaces but as genuine insights that remain relevant and even urgent. Circumstances in the coming years may require new or unusual means to secure the ends of liberty and justice. Our thinking must be appropriately radical.

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Commentary: Save America From Action Civics

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Booker was about twelve when he first set foot in a classroom and discovered that he needed a last name. He invented one on the spot, and for the rest of his life, he was Booker Washington. It was then and still is a civics lesson for America. As a slave born on the Burroughs Plantation in 1856, he was simply Booker. But as a freed individual determined to make something of himself, he chose to identify with his country’s founder. 

Booker T. Washington—he added the T later—spent the rest of his life getting educated and educating others, black and white. He is out of fashion these days because he preached black advancement through relentless hard work and veered away from challenging the racist public policies of his time. But he still has something to teach us, namely that Americans have to own their history.

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House Preps to Pass Two Immigration Bills, Dreamer Pathway to Citizenship, Agricultural Worker Visa Reform as Border Crisis Intensifies

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The House will vote on two immigration bills this week as the numbers of migrant families and children detained at the southern border surges.

The first bill, dubbed the Dream and Promise Act (DPA) would provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, immigrants who have lived in the U.S. illegally since being brought as young children.

The second, the Farm Modernization Workforce Act (FMWA), would create a certified agricultural worker status and streamline the H-2A visa application process. President Joe Biden has also announced a sweeping immigration reform plan in addition to the two bills, though Republicans have labeled it a non-starter.

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CBO Says Budget Deficit Will Hit $2.3 Trillion in 2021

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The U.S. budget deficit will be larger than expected because of the $900 billion stimulus bill passed in December, a whopping  $448 billion larger than was projected in September, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday.

According to Breitbart, the CBO forecasts that the federal government will borrow $2.26 trillion this year making it the second-largest deficit since World War II. Last year’s $3.1 trillion was the biggest in absolute numbers and also the largest as a share of gross domestic product.

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Commentary: Critical Race Theory Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg in Woke Government Training

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The Trump Administration put critical race theory on notice this month. The White House issued a directive outlawing the inclusion of exercises based on this theory in government training. “These types of ‘trainings’ not only run counter to the fundamental beliefs for which our Nation has stood since its inception, but they also engender division and resentment within the Federal workforce,” the directive declared.

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Treasury Department: States, Local Governments Spend Only 25 Percent of CARES Act Subsidies

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As deliberations continue in Congress over how to allocate another $1 trillion worth of stimulus money, governors and mayors say they need more than the $139 billion already allocated to their states in March to cover revenue shortfalls.

A total of $150 billion was allocated to help state, local and tribal governments with specific COVID-19 response programs.

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US Can’t Afford Public Lands Congress Wants to Bring Under Federal Government Control

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by Tim Pearce   A lengthy public lands package sitting in Congress adds hundreds of thousands of acres of federally protected wilderness without securing funding to manage it. The House is preparing to vote on a bipartisan land package next week that is roughly 660 pages and composed of 118 different bills. The Senate version passed its version, the most comprehensive land package in a decade, on Feb. 12 in a 92 to 8 vote. “It touches every state, features the input of a wide coalition of our colleagues, and has earned the support of a broad, diverse coalition of many advocates for public lands, economic development and conservation,” Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, according to The Washington Post. The Senate package designates 1.3 million acres in California, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah as wilderness, the strictest form of federal protection that bans development of almost any kind as well as roads and most forms of motorized travel. It prohibits mineral development on 370,000 acres of land near two national parks in Montana and Washington state. The lands package designates three new national monuments – two in Kentucky and one in Mississippi – to be managed by the…

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Exclusive Harlan Hill Commentary: Trump Just Turned the Tide in Washington with Three Simple Statements

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by Harlan Hill   The only adult in Washington just stood up and put an end to the nonsense. In President Trump’s Friday afternoon address from the White House garden, he put an end to the government shutdown and laid out the terms for the border negotiations going forward. #1 Put and end to the government shutdown In one quick declaration, President Trump put an end to the suffering so many Americans who were facing during the longest government shutdown in history. “I am very proud to announce we have reached a deal to end the shutdown and reopen the federal government,” he said. He thanked the incredible men and women who faced hardship over the past few weeks. “You are fantastic people,” he added. President Trump showed the compassion so many Democrats were lacking in the heated immigration debate. #2 Reminded Americans of the desperate need for border security While American federal workers were hurting, so were the families harmed by illegal immigration. They still are. President Trump reminded Americans that while the government shutdown may be over, the threat of illegal immigration is not. “Walls should not be controversial,” he said. “No matter where you go, walls work.”…

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Drain The Swamp: EPA Shed 1,200 Jobs In Trump’s First Year And A Half

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Tennessee Star

by Evie Fordham   The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shed approximately 1,200 jobs as roughly 1,600 employees departed and less than 400 new employees were hired during President Donald Trump’s first year and a half in office. Departing employees included “at least 260 scientists, 185 ‘environmental protection specialists’ and 106 engineers,” according to the Washington Post. The EPA’s workforce is now down 8 percent to a size it has not been since former president Ronald Reagan was in office, reported the WaPo. “With nearly half of our employees eligible to retire in the next five years, my priority is recruiting and maintaining the right staff, the right people for our mission, rather than total full-time employees,” EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement according to the WaPo. Nearly 25 percent of the EPA’s 13,758 employees are eligible for retirement, reported the WaPo. Many employees have accepted buyouts, especially in 2017. At its most bloated, the EPA had more than 18,000 employees, reported the WaPo. Some longtime EPA employees are leaving after working under both Republican and Democratic administrations. “I felt it was time to leave given the irresponsible, ongoing diminishment of agency resources, which has recklessly endangered our ability to…

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Commentary: Trump, Reagan, and Big Government

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Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump

by Jeffery Rendall   As I strolled through the excellent and memory-provoking exhibits at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library (in Simi Valley, CA) the other day I was struck by how similar President Donald Trump’s approach to today’s politics is to the way Ronald Reagan handled the subject a half century ago. For starters, Reagan and Trump’s optimistic pro-American emphasis is nearly identical. They both appealed to the patriotic propensities of country-loving individuals to rise up and be the best they possibly can be, so that everyone might achieve their goals and dreams as long as they’re willing to work hard, sacrifice and put stock in the best nation on the planet. At their core both Reagan and Trump mastered a populist message and used it to ignite a movement (unfortunately in their cases, very personality-centered). Both acknowledged America as the lead source of good in the world and championed American exceptionalism as their signature value. Both were extremely media savvy and understood mass communications and messaging to perfection. It almost appears as though Trump’s emulated Reagan’s political career and added his own personal touches to match the legendary effectiveness of the great communicator. Reagan didn’t have Twitter, of course, and…

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Federal Civil Service Abuses Bigger Than Just the Department of Veterans Affairs

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By Natalia Castro   When news broke of employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) putting the lives of veterans at risk with waiting lists to die, the country was outraged. When it became clear that these employees were not being terminated for their failures and mismanagement, Florida Senator Marco Rubio led bipartisan legislation that protected whistleblowers and provided management the authority to remove bad employees. Unfortunately, the VA is not the only department allowing bad employees to stay on the job despite grotesque violations of employee guidelines and even the law. Here we highlight some of the worst stories of civil service abuse in recent years and how they have been allowed to occur. Department of Veterans Affairs Some stories of abuse are obvious, like the Washington Times of April 2016 which reported on two senior VA officials who were responsible for the death of nearly 300 veterans on waiting lists, yet took over two years to even be proposed to be terminated. But as Senator Rubio argued in a May 2017 press release, this large-scale abuse flourished because of a culture of mismanagement. Rubio explained, “To list just a few examples, one VA employee was arrested and spent time in jail…

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