Archive for the ‘Cultural Commentary’ Category

Tami Fitzgerald

On behalf of everyone that makes up the North Carolina Values Coalition and the 61% of North Carolina voters who voted for the Marriage Amendment last May, the North Carolina Values Coalition has filed an Amicus Brief with the United States Supreme Court to defend North Carolina’s definition of marriage.

California’s marriage amendment and the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) will go before the Supreme Court this Spring, and experts speculate these cases could be the deciding opinion on marriage and the ability of government to redefine marriage.

By Susan Bryant, Chairman, Wake County Republican Party

It’s Tax filing time, and when you file your IRS and North Carolina Tax returns, I am asking that you DO NOT check off the box that sends public funds to political parties!

From the time it began in the 1970’s, I have been opposed to public financing of political campaigns.  This includes the years I made my living as a campaign consultant, and could therefore have pocketed some of the money involved myself.  I consider my position one of the most selfless and altruistic I have ever espoused.  But seriously, why should taxpayers’ money go to pay for politicians’ bumper strips when we are running up trillions of dollars of debt?

So I’ve been against all public financing schemes, the Presidential check-off, the many various proposals for financing Congressional campaigns that have been floated over the year, and, yes, the North Carolina check-off law, too.  Now that we have a Republican legislature, I think elimination of the Political Parties Financing Fund ought to be a major part of the campaign reform bill they pass, along with Voter ID and a number of other changes that are needed.

Not all of the reports have been filed yet, but last year, more than $2 million was doled out by the state to the three recognized political parties, with by far the largest share going to the Democrats, who got over a million and a half.  Some of the Democrat money (as Francis DeLuca pointed out in a Civitas Review article last April,) went to pay for the settlement the Dems paid to cover up the allegation of sexual harassment.

Doing away with the check-off fund would also make it unnecessary for Republicans to wrestle with the choice between honor and political expediency.  Assuming they don’t get it repealed in time for the 2012 tax returns we’re all dealing with now, I will decline to say yes to wasteful spending again, hopefully for the last time, at least at our state level.  I hope you will, too.

Democrats argue that public financing will cut down on political clout by fat cats and other special interests, but doesn’t that go against their basic philosophy of “soak the rich?”  When they check the box, they are taking $3 out of the funds that would otherwise go to education, mental health and other worthy causes in the state budgets and give it to the politicians.  How did that ever get to be the policy of the party of the “little guy,” anyway?

I don’t believe those precious dollars should go to politicians, but rather should go to the education of our children, homeless veterans and other worthy causes.  And I encourage all who want to contribute to a political party to do so…and for you Republicans, I’m including a link to do so for either the North Carolina GOP or the Wake County GOP.

North Carolina Senate leaders introduced legislation Wednesday to opt out of participation in several costly provisions of the federal Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Senators Tom Apodaca (R-Henderson), Harry Brown (R-Onslow) and Bob Rucho (R-Mecklenburg) filed Senate Bill 4 to exempt North Carolina from establishing a state-based health insurance exchange or a state-federal partnership exchange.

The bill also directs the N.C. Department of Insurance to return unspent taxpayer funds awarded by the Federal Department of Health and Human Services earlier this month to create a state-federal partnership exchange.

“Obamacare was forced on us against our will by the federal government, and they should shoulder the burden of implementing it,” said Sen. Apodaca.  “Any claim that North Carolina would ‘control’ this program is nothing more than an illusion.”

 

Senate Bill 4 also rules out expansion of the North Carolina Medicaid program.  In its 2012 decision on Obamacare, the U.S. Supreme Court exempted states from the federal mandate to expand Medicaid eligibility.  Based on the court’s ruling, North Carolina has the authority to opt out of expansion.

Costs for North Carolina’s existing Medicaid program have increased significantly in recent years. In 2012, the General Assembly was forced to fill a surprise Medicaid shortfall that totaled more than $500 million.  Recent figures from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services indicate that an expansion of the program would add hundreds of millions of dollars in additional state costs to North Carolina’s Medicaid budget through 2019.

“Senate Republicans are committed to ensuring every North Carolinian receives the highest quality health care and outcomes,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger (R-Rockingham).  “Saddling our citizens with the enormous costs of a new federal bureaucracy and entitlements is simply not the way to achieve this goal.”

Background:

Under Obamacare, each state must have in place a health exchange where individuals and small businesses, which are now mandated to have insurance, can purchase health care coverage.  There are three options:  a state-run exchange, a state-federal partnership exchange and a federally-run exchange. Senate leaders have spent months evaluating the implications of each type of exchange.

In November 2012, former Gov. Beverly Perdue prematurely declared her intent to establish a state-federal partnership exchange – three months before the deadline for the state to make this declaration – while at the same time applying for $73.9 million dollars in federal grant funding to set up the new government program.

Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC-2nd)

Thursday afternoon, I was sworn in for my second term in the 113th Congress. I am excited to be serving as a new member on the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee and Subcommittees on Health, Oversight and Investigations, and Communications and Technology.

The Fiscal Cliff Deal Did Nothing to Address Spending

This week, the House of Representatives passed a bill to avert the Fiscal Cliff- putting off major decisions to reign-in Washington’s uncontrolled spending.

I voted against the Senate’s compromise bill due to its dramatic increase in taxes and failure to address the bloated spending, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will increase the deficit by nearly $4 Trillion over the next 10 years.

This was supposed to be a deficit reduction bill, not a deficit increase that adds trillions to our deficit while increasing taxes. I could not support a measure that adds trillions to our deficits while increasing taxes by $41 for every $1 in spending cuts. Additionally, this deal continues to give tax advantages to big businesses while small businesses – the real lifeblood of our economy – are left to shoulder the burden and pay the bills.

We must get serious about addressing the true driver of the fiscal mess that our nation is in.

Our out-of-control spending does nothing to help American families and only exacerbates the problems facing our country.

I look forward to working with my colleagues to address the real sources of this crisis and continuing the fight against government waste in the 113th Congress.

The National Republican Party (RNC) has been a popular whipping post lately, after losing the Presidential election.  Indeed heads will probably roll at their annual meeting in Charlotte, which KCC will cover for you.    KCC enjoyed covering the RNC convention in Tampa hopes to bring you more such action.

Meanwhile, here in North Carolina, the state Republican Party certainly did its job and more during the last election cycle.

The Party helped elect, another Republican General Assembly and this time added on a Republican Governor.  Good times have returned to Raleigh for the GOP.

There will be the old battles between the moderate and conservative wings of the Party as the libertarian wing, the tea party, moves along.   No one knows if they will join their own, more fitting Libertarian Party, or continue to try to win (and fail) as a branch of NC Republicans.

Robin Hayes, Chairman of   the NCGOP, is up for re-election at this Spring’s State Party Convention

Robin Hayes, chairman of the NCGOP, is up for re-election at this Spring’s state party convention.  That three-day-event, will be held in Charlotte and KCC will have the dates for you soon.

Meanwhile, consider these accomplishments of the Republicans and other groups, as presented by the NCGOP:

• Historic dominance of all three branches of state government
• Landslide Republican gubernatorial win: McCrory 55%; Dalton 43%; Howe 2%
• Enabled Pat McCrory to be only the second statewide Republican to win Early Voting in NCSuper majorities in NC Senate (33/17) and NC House (77/43)
• Republican Lt. Governor to preside over GOP Senate (Dan Forest)
• Gained 3 US House seats to make a Republican majority congressional delegation (9/4)
• Landslide passage of Marriage Amendment in May
• Maintained Conservative Republican majority on NC Supreme Court
• Progress in County Commissioners: 54 GOP County Boards; 44 Democratic; 2 Non-Partisan
• Only “Swing” state not carried by President Obama in 2012 Presidential race.   Yes, North Carolina did its party as the state voted for Mitt Romney in November.  There was nothing else it could have done.

Editor’s Note:   Conservatives, please make plans to attend the State Republican Convention in Charlotte and vote to keep Robin Hayes  your state Chairman.

ACU Chairman Al Cardenas welcomed in the 2013 New Year with a bold statement on the latest”Fiscal Cliff” proposal:

“The American Conservative Union simply cannot accept or support the Senate Bill as passed this morning, which does nothing to reign in out of control spending. Given the dire financial situation our country faces,

ACU would have supported, albeit reluctantly, the Bush era tax cut extensions for those with incomes under $400,000 to $450,000 and supported the Death Tax provisions that maintain the current exemptions and are indexed for inflation.

This is vital for our family farms and family-owned businesses.

Our nation has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

Rather than do the essential work of cutting spending, the current bill actually adds even more deficit spending. Congress needs to make the hard decisions now for the future of our children and grandchildren. Therefore, ACU recommends that the House take the non-tax provisions out of the Senate Bill and pass it. They should then go back to the drawing board and put together a comprehensive plan to responsibly deal with unemployment insurance, the Farm Bill, special interest tax subsidies and replacing the sequester with targeted spending cuts in a way that would be in line with our conservative values.”

The American Conservative Union holds CPAC, the largest national gathering of conservatives.  In the past few years, the organization has expanded into the midwest and Florida.

KCC has been to many CPAC events and enjoys being an official blogger.

Wake GOP wants your story. How did you build it?

The Wake County Republican Party is soliciting information from small business owners about how they built their businesses.  Anyone wishing to tell their story can do so simply by sending an e-mail to Ididbuildit@Wakegop.org .

The effort is in response to President Obama’s infamous quote that “if you own a small business, you didn’t build that…”

“Business  people all over the country and right here in Wake County are outraged that the President would denigrate their hard work, ingenuity and risk taking,” said Susan Bryant, the Wake Republican Chairman.  “His insensitive words were an insult to thousands of people, and he should be ashamed.

“We Republicans think America’s entrepreneurs are the key to what made us the greatest and most prosperous country in history, and in our local area, we want to recognize these unsung heroes of free enterprise.”

The party will feature the best stories from among those it receives at the new email address on its website, in various mailings and other advertising vehicles, and by inviting business owners to speak at events, according to Bryant.

American Crossroads on Wednesday,  launched a new television ad in North Carolina that blasts President Obama for his failed economic policies, and demonstrates that contrary to Obama’s “Forward” campaign slogan, America is really moving backward on his watch.

Supported by a $811,000 television buy, the new 30-second ad will run in North Carolina for ten days. The spot, entitled “Forward?,” highlights a series of economic facts on the extent of Obama’s economic malaise, including that 40% of families are living paycheck to paycheck on Obama’s watch.

“For Barack Obama, ‘Forward’ is the new backward, because another four years of Obama’s economic policies will only keep moving America backward,”

said American Crossroads director of state and regional media relations Nate Hodson. “Obama’s hollow campaign slogan is another attempt to divert attention from the fact that during Obama’s tenure, unemployment, household incomes, gas prices and the national debt are all getting worse.”

Editor’s Note: American Crossroads is a non-profit 527 political organization dedicated to renewing America’s commitment to individual liberty, limited government, free enterprise and a strong national defense through informed and effective political action. American Crossroads seeks to educate voters and empower citizens to hold lawmakers and office-seekers accountable for where they stand.  (Emphasis added.)

Ann Romney suffers from MS and beat cancer. She’s her husband’s biggest cheerleader.

TAMPA         High atop the Republican National Convention on a Wednesday evening, this blogger has a fantastic view of everything. The delegates are milling about on the floor, media rushes about to get interviews, and speakers struggle to keep the attention of the audience.

Again, Wednesday evening, the Texas delegation is dressed alike, this time, with light blue shirts and cowboy hats. The North Carolina delegation, for photo day, chose to wear seersucker suits to stand out on the floor. This blogger has loaned her jacket out to a cold neighbor, here in the Tampa Times Forum. The Forum is the home of the Tampa Bay Lightning NHL team.

This convention has been as fun as advertised, though a bad back has slowed your blogger. She rented a scooter for the week and the RNC sent over a special Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) van that travels back and forth to the convention each day.

As regular readers may know, this blogger travels quite often to hear political speakers and has been active in politics since the age of six. After becoming seriously involved in the GOP and in the conservative movement at age 18, this 45-year-old no longer gets too excited at political speeches. It seems like after nearly 30 years in politics, we’ve seen and heard it all. KCC just doesn’t get too excited about it anymore.

However, something remarkable happened last night. Ann Romney happened.

She spoke about her life as a a wife, as a daughter of a Welsh coal miner, and the mother of five sons. Mrs. Romney discussed how it all started. How she went to a dance with Mitt. How they dated and fell in love.

They were married way too young because they were “crazy in love”, and at 22 she found herself the mother of their first son. She had no clue what to do.  We’ve heard that story before.

Delegates love Ann Romney

Mrs. Romney told the crowd that things weren’t always easy, but she and Mitt could depend on one another and they knew they could clear every obstacle.  She talked about how her husband, despite the demands of his work, always made time for his family. Mostly she showed his human side.  If there were any doubts in this blogger’s mind about Mitt, Ann Romney’s speech took care of them.

Wednesday night’s theme was “We Can Change It”.  Your blogger thinks a better theme would be “We Can Change It BACK” or “We Can Change if FORWARD”.  Change is now a scary word after Mr. Obama came into office and raped & pillaged our nation.

The liberal media keeps writing about Romney’s “problem with women”.  Polls are showing however, that among married women, Romney has a huge lead!  Romney does not have a “women problem”.

He has a “liberal women problem” and there is simply nothing that can be done about that!

More to come….

TAMPA        Live,  KCC  brings you gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Republican National Convention.  We have what is being shown on closed circuit television inside the Tampa Bay Forum, and produced by the Republican National Committee.

This post will remain at the top of our blog throughout the convention, with other blog posts appearing beneath.  Thank you for reading KCC and we hope you get as much out of the 2012 National Convention as we are.

Between the breaks, the G.E. Smith Band plays, a bluesy-rock band formerly of Saturday Night Live, the Blues Brothers, and others.  This blogger is a huge fan and is thrilled to see them.