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Archives for June 2017

Coburn Details Convention of States

June 2, 2017 by GregC

http://dateline.radioamerica.org/podcast/6-2-coburn-cos-blog.mp3

After concluding Washington is incapable of solving some of America’s biggest problems over his 16 years in Congress, former Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., says a constitutionally provided convention of the states is the only realistic remedy to what ails us.

Article V of the Constitution allows for amendments through a convention of two-thirds of the states proposing changes that would then need to be ratified by three-quarters of the states.  Currently, 34 states would need to get on board to force Congress to call a convention and 38 states would need to approve any proposed amendments.

“Before our constitutional convention, everything was decided through a convention like this,” said Coburn, who points out George Mason insisted on the inclusion of the convention of the states option after pointing out no government in history has ever given back power to the people.

Coburn further explained the process.

“You have to an application that aggregates (among the states).  You have to have the same application everywhere.  You can’t have one application for a balanced budget and one application for something else.  You have to have 34 that say the same thing,” said Coburn.

The current push for a convention of the states calls for three amendments: one to balance the budget, one to rein in the reach of the federal government , and one to limit the length of terms in the House and Senate.

Coburn says a balanced budget amendment is desperately needed.

“We think the federal government ought to be fiscally responsible.  They ought to have to live under the same accounting guidelines everybody else does and they ought to have to live within their means,” said Coburn.  “That’s a balanced budget amendment but it also means you can’t just go and add mandates to the states to balance the budget.  You have to make hard choices.”

Congress came within one vote of approving a balanced budget amendment in 1995, just months after Republicans won control of both chambers.  The plan passed the House 300-132, but the 65-35 tally in the Senate was just shy of sending the amendment to the states.

The vote was really 66-34, but when it was clear the measure would fail then-Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, changed his vote to no so he would be eligible under Senate rules to reconsider the issue.  A subsequent vote also failed.

Since 1995, no balanced budget proposal has come anywhere close to passing, and Coburn says that should come as no surprise.

“They don’t want to balance the budget, because then they have to make hard choices, then they have to be accountable to their electorate.  If the electorate doesn’t like the choices that they made, they’ll replace them.  It’s an insurance policy if I don’t have to have a balanced budget,” said Coburn.

“The easiest thing in the world is to spend somebody else’s money and that’s what they do every day.  They spend our grandchildren’s money because we’re certainly not spending our own right now,” said Coburn.

Next on the amendment list is to “limit the scope and jurisdiction of the federal government.”  Coburn says a ridiculous case from 1942 effectively gave the federal government to meddle far too intimately in our lives.

“An Ohio wheat farmer grew 18 acres more wheat than he was allotted, but he used every bit of it to feed his own cattle, his own family and used it for feed the next year.  The federal government said that’s interstate commerce because you didn’t buy that 18 acres worth of wheat from somewhere else,” said Coburn.

“So they expanded the commerce clause and that is what has allowed the federal government to tell every state – in everything they do now – what to do,” said Coburn.

Coburn says returning power to state and local authorities also heightens accountability, pointing out it is much easier to get an appointment with your state representative than a member of the House or Senate.

Coburn cited a recent poll showing 86 percent of Americans don’t trust the federal government.  He says that places America in a crisis that returning power to states and locales can help to address.

“When you quit trusting the central authority, then you will no longer follow its will.  That’s called anarchy.  So we have to take back our freedom.  We have to re-establish the rule of law and make sure it’s followed.  But also it has to have the integrity of the central government in terms of a limited federal government,” said Coburn.

The third and final amendment Coburn and his allies are pushing would limit lawmakers to 12 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and 12 years in the U.S. Senate.

“Prior to a Supreme Court ruling in 1994, 26 states had limited the terms of their members of Congress.  In an Arkansas case, the Supreme Court decided that we as citizens can’t decide whether we want to limit the terms of our federal representatives.  Well that’s ludicrous.  So what you do is pass an amendment that puts a limit on the amount of time people can serve,” said Coburn.

Coburn says 12 states are already on board.  He expects another 10-12 states to join the effort in the next 12 months and another 10-12 in the year after that, meaning a convention of states could take place within two to three years.

He is quick to stress that the convention itself cannot ratify the amendments.  That role still belongs to the states.  Coburn is bullish on that front as well, noting that Republicans are just 24 seats away from controlling the legislatures in 38 states.

Ultimately, Coburn believes the success or failure of this campaign will depend upon the courage to do what has to be done.

“Do we have the moral structure with which to make these hard decisions for the future or do we just let this train run out of control down the mountain?  That’s the real question,” said Coburn.

“If you love your kids, you love your country, and you love your future, you ought to be about choking down the federal government and having it live within its means, lessening it’s impact on the economy so the economy can actually grow,” said Coburn.

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Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: budget, Coburn, convention, government, limited, limits, news, states, term

Paris Pullout and Panic, Georgia Nail-Biter, Griffin Plays the Victim

June 2, 2017 by GregC

Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America discuss President Trump making good on his promise to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord and the liberal hysteria that followed. They’re also analyzing the very close run-off election between John Ossoff and Karen Handel in a normally red district in Georgia. And they express their disgust with Kathy Griffin as she plays the victim following the fierce bipartisan backlash in response to her photo stunt depicting her holding President Trump’s bloody head.

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Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: climate, elections, georgia, John Ossoff, Karen Handel, Kathy Griffin, Martini, National Review, Paris

‘I’m Glad Trump Had the Fortitude to Stick It Out’

June 1, 2017 by GregC

http://dateline.radioamerica.org/podcast/6-1-ball-blog.mp3

President Trump officially withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Accords, and one of the leading climate experts disputing the purported consensus on climate science is praising Trump for making the right decision for the American economy and for sound science.

“I’m glad that Trump had the fortitude to stick it out despite all the attempts to waylay him,” said Dr. Tim Ball, a retired climatologist at the University of Winnipeg and author of “The Deliberate Corruption of Climate Science.”

“He didn’t have to rely on the false science.  He relied strictly on the economics of it, that it’s a very very bad deal for the United States.  In fact, it’s deliberately designed to punish the United States,” said Ball.

Ball says the Paris Climate Accords were simply the latest incarnation of the old Kyoto Protocol from the 1990’s which sought to redistribute wealth from the industrial nations.  He contends the Green Climate Fund, which is part of the Paris agreement, is latest effort in that regard.

Ball points out the non-binding nature of the agreement – which is the only way the deal could be struck – means most nations have not contributed what they’ve pledged to the Green Climate Fund.

Nonetheless, Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the non-binding deal resulted in howls of protest from critics, with environmental activist Tom Steyer claiming the action was treasonous and CNN’s Fareed Zakaria insisting the move means the U.S. is surrendering its role as leader of the free world.

Ball says none of the criticism is based in actual science.

“They use the environment and they use the climate as a vehicle for a political agenda.  All they can do when you say I’m not going along with the political agenda is invoke that the sky is falling,” said Ball.

Ball says many of the political opponents of Trump are simply led to their position by perpetrators of bad science.  He says Pope Francis is the perfect example.

“One of the most egregious ones was the pope.  The pope got co-opted by (Hans Joachim) Schellnhuber at the Potsdam Institute in Germany.  He was the key author for the pope’s encyclical against global warming,” said Ball.

He says the notion that humans can dictate radical changes to the earth’s climate are the height of arrogance.

“The reality is that the levels of energy involved and the amount of energy that humans put in are so miniscule that it is actually laughable to think that we can control the climate in any way,” said Ball.

Trump did say he was open to renegotiating the Paris agreement or forging new deals with other nations that would be more beneficial to the United States.  Ball says those talks should be done only after Trump gets a better handle on genuine climate science.

“What I hope will happen is that this will now allow a focus more on the science that is purportedly behind the claims that CO2 is a problem,” said Ball, noting every United National climate change prediction has been badly incorrect.

“It’s got to be real science, proven science.  Their science has failed.  We know that because their forecasts have failed.  If your forecasts are wrong, your science is wrong,” said Ball.

 

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Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: accords, climate, news, Paris, science, Trump, withdraw

Hillary’s Massive Blame Game, Trump Puzzling on Paris, Biden Back in the Game

June 1, 2017 by GregC

Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America are once again relieved that Hillary Clinton is not president after she once again blames everyone and everything but herself for losing to Donald Trump. They are also puzzled as a flurry of lobbying in favor of the climate deal takes place after Turmp supposedly decided to withdraw from it. And they react to former Vice President Joe Biden starting a new Super PAC and fueling speculation that he may run for president in 2020 in a primary that could feature many elderly Democrats.

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Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: 2020, Biden, climate, conspiracy, Hillary, Martini, National Review, Trump

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