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Volume XIX Number 21 - November 11, 2020     RSS Feed   

A Periodic Newsletter for Committed Texas Conservatives

In This Issue

2020 Election: It's Not Over Yet, But Clearly Our Nation Is Closely Divided

The Elephant In The Room For America, And Joe Biden Never Mentioned It

New Book, The Fictional Account Of How Dishonest Democrats Steal Elections

2020 Election: Harris County GOP On Life Support, Statewide We Survived, But Have Lots Of Work To Do

Censorship By Brian Ettinger, Contributing Editor

Biden Plan For Health Care By Bruce Bialosky, Contributing Editor

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Thoughts This Fortnight

2020 Election: It's Not Over Yet,
But Clearly Our Nation Is Closely Divided

Nationally, the Trump-Biden race is almost 50-50 in the popular vote. There are still questions on voter fraud in Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and other states, mostly fueled by voting by mail. To overcome where we are at, the Trump team needs evidence a court of law would accept.

Let's be clear, Joe Biden has no mandate, what did he run on? Covid-19, He will do better and that he was more Presidential-like than Trump. Overall, the GOP gained House seats, maybe as many as twelve! The GOP looks like it will hold the Senate after dealing with the avalanche of Democratic money spent in key races, like north of $100 million spent against Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, and so many others.

Obviously, if there are two runoffs for the Georgia Senate they are critical, Senators Perdue and Loeffler both need our help. Their opponents are uber-leftists and one is a friend of anti-Semitic preacher Jeremiah Wright. We must win the runoffs! Send whatever you can at winred.com.

The Elephant In The Room For America,
And Joe Biden Never Mentioned It

TCR Comment: With thanks to Dan Denning of the Bonner-Denning Letter, here is our executive summary:

$200 Trillion in Unfunded Liabilities

"At all levels of government in the United States - federal, state, and local - there are more than $200 trillion worth of future payments that the country is unlikely to pay, at least in their entirety. These are the "unfunded liabilities" you hear about from economists. They are the sum total of future Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and public pension payments."

"You didn't hear a single word about that in the election - from the candidates or the media - because they don't want the people to know the truth. The truth is, the only way those obligations can be met is through massive money-printing (which leads to inflation and a decline in the value of your savings AND your quality of life) ... or a redefinition of money itself (Modern Monetary Theory - which proposes spending money into existence to "solve" big problems - and/or central bank digital currency).

"The nation's fiscal direction is "unsustainable," according to a report published by the government's own General Accounting Office (GAO). The GAO pointed out that in the 2019 fiscal year, the government paid out over $1 trillion Social Security benefits.

"This year, it will be another trillion on Medicare and Medicaid. And not long after that, $1 trillion on net interest on the debt. (Even with historically low interest rates, the cost of servicing our $27 trillion in debt adds up.)

"The political arithmetic is inescapable. The government can only extract so much from one generation, through payroll taxes, to pay for the retirement of another generation. At a certain level, higher payroll taxes are simply punitive and redistributive.

"Higher taxes don't help the economy grow, either. And without growth in productivity, and with more automation in the labor markets, payroll taxes alone – even higher ones - aren't going to bridge the 'fiscal gap.'

"There's likely to be one important result in how you're taxed. The tax base is going to shift from wages and incomes to net worth and total assets. You have to tax the money where it is. If globalization, automation, and the COVID-19 lockdowns mean a smaller income tax base, then you're going to see higher capital gains taxes on stocks, homes, investment properties, and even your net worth. 'Excess savings' by retirees could be taxed with a negative interest rate."

The fiscal disaster facing America is scary and seemingly unavoidable. Next issue, we will give you advice as to how to protect yourself.

New Book, The Fictional Account Of How Dishonest Democrats Steal Elections

The Election Heist by Kenneth Timmerman is a new novel that tells the story of the vulnerabilities of our election infrastructure. Given what has happened this year with significant voter fraud and illegal voting, the book is timely. The story is about a stolen election and how it was done.

It's worth reading. The moral for President Trump: Don't give up, don't let them cheat the American people out of their choice.

2020 Election: Harris County GOP On Life Support,
Statewide We Survived,
But Have Lots Of Work To Do

After the disastrous 2016 and 2018 election cycles in Harris County (Houston), Texas, the GOP lost virtually every countywide race and had legislative and Congressional setbacks. However, in 2020 they held serve. Holding all Congressional seats, losing only Sarah Davis in the legislature, but Mike Schofield ousted the Democratic incumbent. Steve Radack's Commissioner seat was held by Tom Ramsey. We lost a Justice of the Peace seat in Precinct 5 as incumbent Russ Ridgway lost by 12,000 votes.

Wesley Hunt came oh so close in making Pelosi Democrat Lizzie Fletcher a one-termer, 51.6% to 46.8% with only 13,300 votes separating them and the Libertarian took 1.6%. This seat is obtainable and the hope here is that Wesley Hunt keeps on running.

The losing streak for State District Judges continued for the third cycle in a row. There was basically no organized campaign, no messaging about some of the really bad Democratic judges who were challenged (not the good ones who were basically left alone). There was an attempt by a group of candidates represented by a local consultant and she called it the "A Team." This group picked up anywhere from 20,000 - 25,000 additional votes above the base GOP vote, but they still lost by an average of 105,000 votes. For GOP judicial candidates, what is being done just doesn't work.

Statewide, the margins were not as good as four years ago, but we still won all statewide races. No net change statewide in State Representatives and Congressional races and this is despite the Democrats and their allies spending well north of $175 million, outspending the GOP in almost every race run at this level.

The GOP also did much better in South Texas with Hispanic voters. The issues that drove this vote will be important going forward.

The 2022 cycle has begun and the GOP has more work to do, toward making the GOP the working class party for Texans.

Censorship
By Brian Ettinger, Contributing Editor

The current signs are showing our country moving down a path that goes against the most basic fibers of the foundation of our democratic principles. The founding fathers set up a system to protect free speech, the right to protest and other individual rights outlined under the Constitution that restricts the Federal Government's ability to take away these rights. This was enforced by a judicial system under the three branches of our government and separate but equal power. The Supreme Court, with its judicial decisions, placed very little restrictions on free speech and expression unless for the public good. Individual rights was and is very important to our democracy. Now, with the actions of social media platforms and the media to limit content they politically disagree with, the media bias needs to be held accountable. The public needs to know all sides of an issue and not just given a one-sided biased view. Therefore, either these social media platforms and media companies remain neutral in presenting both sides of an issue (whether they agree with the content or dispute its accuracy) or lose their government protections, face fines and be subject to lawsuits for their actions. They hide behind the law granting them immunity. If they do not work to present information in a neutral manner or put a disclaimer on information posted that they disagree with then we need to use anti-trust laws and break up these private/public businesses.

It was done to AT&T who controlled the phone and communications systems for years. The public needs to be very suspicious of the information being reported by these social media and media companies. There needs to be disclaimers stating bias, right or left point of views in big letters and placed in view of the information. After the way they have acted the last few years we cannot trust them as they censor information on the content presented, remove content and restrict access by individuals posting information. Censorship is not good in any form of government (state run media) or private businesses doing business in the public arena. I reviewed the public testimony in the Senate hearings of the three heads of these social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter and Google) who have tried to justify their company's actions with roadblocks. It is Russian misinformation or false information posted or they are just a third party platform that the public needs to subscribe to these social media sites and private companies so they can post and delete whatever information they want. These arguments fail because they are no different than the media companies putting out information and have rules to follow or are subject to lawsuits for defamation, slander and libel.

To listen or watch requires a purchase of a radio or TV, cable programs treated the same as subscribers. So these mavens need to be tarred and feathered for the bullshit and censorship they are doing. This needs to be reined in now or watch our democratic rights be taken away.


Brian Ettinger is a practicing attorney and contributing editor to TCR. He is a strong conservative who is concerned about America's future.

Biden Plan For Health Care
By Bruce Bialosky, Contributing Editor

The Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force provides recommendations in six areas of domestic policy which are a roadmap for what Biden and his team want to accomplish if he is elected president. Despite little discussion about public policy at their convention, this is a detailed plan for domestic policy. Today we will look at their plans for health care entitled Achieving Universal Affordable, Quality Health Care.

There are two parts of the plan, a 10-page narrative of what they want to do and then a 13-page description of their policy recommendations. This is the longest of six parts of the report.

A note of interest: Much like the Hillary Clinton Task Force on Health Care in 1993, not one member of this group is a practicing physician or nurse. Also, no hospital administrators are part of the group. None of these people have worked as a health care provider to inform their decisions on how to alter the system.

Here are some points of what they describe:

1. We are going to at last build the health care system the American people have always deserved. We will build a health care system that is driven by the needs of patients and the people who care for them, instead of the profit motives of corporations." Once again they display their hatred for the capitalist system. The only good corporation is a dead corporation. If the needs of the patients and the people who care for them are so paramount, why couldn't they find one person from those groups to be on the Task Force?

2. They do not call for government run health insurance or use the words Medicare for All. They are careful here. They just call for a public option. If you are under the delusional belief that the public option is not just a stalking horse for government run health care, then read this report. They have so many handouts and subsidies to boost the public option and undercut private insurance that only a naïve person would not believe that, if adopted, this plan is the shortest road to government run, single-payer health care. There is only one path this Task Force sees toward universal health care - the government total control.

3. There is a long established saying in sales - "you can have price, service or quality; pick two." There is a reason that saying has existed for a long time; it is a truism. The task force is telling you that they are going to create a low-cost, high-quality product with great service. Since no one on the Task Force has apparently ever had a real job they would not know how to create such a system if it were even possible. But it is not. Someone should teach them the other great sales saying - "under promise and over deliver."

4. They state "we recognize that health care is a right." Whether you agree with that statement or not, the question is who controls the system of delivery. As challenging as the current system is, wait until it all is controlled by the federal government. They want you to believe it works well in other countries, but that is a falsehood. Even Denmark partially privatized their health care system to return control to individuals.

5. "We must start by making COVID-19 testing widely available, convenient and free to everyone." It already is. Their definition of convenience may be people going door-to-door. That is not being done. They also said they want to make vaccines free to everyone. President Trump has already said they will be. It would help if they would stop making ridiculous statements like Governor Cuomo did about doing his own testing of the vaccine.

6. Democrats believe the federal government should pick up 100 % of the tab for COBRA. COBRA is an insurance option provided to former employees upon their termination. This is another one of their steps to expand governmental control of the health system.

7. "Democrats are appalled that President Trump failed to act on the advice of Congress to maintain a strong stockpile of critical medical supplies, including personal protective equipment." Either they have the wrong president (Mr. Obama depleted the stockpile and did not replenish it) or they have a lot chutzpah.

8. They want to eliminate tax breaks for prescription drug advertisements. Otherwise, consumers stay totally ignorant and rely totally on us to tell you what you can or cannot have.

9. "The opioid epidemic has devastated American communities and the Trump Administration has completely failed in its response." Another case of world-class chutzpah. For eight years Mr. Obama did extraordinarily little and Mr. Trump was the first to attempt to get this under control.

10. There is no mention of the cost of these plans. They tell us by taking the profits out of the system taken by diabolic corporations will save money for us all. They did not get far on doing that with the ACA and this will just compound the lie. The only way to wring costs out of the system is to deny or delay services. That is the only plan they could have. If you do not believe that ask a Canadian.

This document is a call to arms for nationalized, single-payer, government controlled health care. There are so many expansions they are proposing to the health care system while decrying the out-of-line costs for the system as it currently exists. The reason it is so expensive in their minds is capitalist greed. If only the government would run all aspects of the system, we would have a free and fair system. The current system is racist and sexist and against the LGBTQ+ community. One question is how can the system be sexist when the life expectancy for females is longer than for males? Maybe they mean it is against males? In addition, they want to cover illegal aliens.

The other factor is they want to add personnel to the system. They want to add 600,000 home healthcare workers to the system. Many of those people who want home health care would be better off in a facility and it would be more cost-effective. They are proposing to create 600,000 jobs which then would become unionized government employees. That is at minimum a $24 billion annual tab.

On the other hand, just like the ACA, they do not address our shortage of doctors and nurses. They talk in general about creating health care jobs, but no specific reference to the two key positions - doctors and nurses. No proposal to expand medical or nursing schools. We will always have an inadequate system if we don't have more well-trained doctors and nurses. Importing them from foreign countries is not a solution. And lowering standards to meet some perceived injustice is not a solution.


Bruce Bialosky is the founder of the Republican Jewish Coalition of California and a former Presidential appointee. You can follow Bruce on Twitter @brucebialosky.


TCR on the Air

Gary Polland has recently undertaken the hosting duties on a new interview show, Tell It Like It Is. The show is available at American Star TV or at its YouTube Channel. New shows post Wednesdays. This week: 2020 Elections: What Happened and Why with the Three Amigos from KSEV-AM 700; Senator Paul Bettencourt, Judge Eric Andell and Conservative commentator Ben Streusand, and retired Democratic Judge Maria Jackson.

Red, White, and Blue featuring TCR Editor Gary Polland on Fridays at 7:30 pm on Houston Public Media TV 8, replaying Saturday at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 8, Monday at 11:30 pm on Channel 8.2 and on the web at www.houstonpublicmedia.org.

Red, White & Blue, Like all business and education campuses, our show is off the air as we can't meet to tape. We hope to be back as soon as possible.

About Your Editor

Gary Polland is a long-time conservative and Republican spokesman, fund-raiser, and leader who completed three terms as the Harris County Republican Chairman. During his three terms, Gary was described as the most successful county Chairman in America by Human Events - The National Conservative Weekly. He is in his twenty-fifth year of editing a newsletter dealing with key conservative and Republican issues. The last nineteen years he has edited Texas Conservative Review. As a public service for the last 17 years, Gary has published election guides for the GOP primary, general elections and city elections, all with the purpose of assisting conservative candidates. Gary is also in his 20th year of co-hosting Red, White and Blue on Houston Public Media TV 8 PBS Houston, longest running political talk show in Texas history. Gary serves on the Board of Directors of American Values, a national pro-family, pro-faith, conservative organization supporting the unity of the American people around the vision of our founding fathers and dedicated to reminding the public of the conservative principles fundamental to the survival of our nation. Gary is a practicing attorney and strategic consultant. He can be reached at (713) 621-6335.

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