Rep. Jim Jordan on America's unsustainable debt

Part 1


Part 2

Capito Votes Against Democrats’ Year-End Spending Spree

House Leaders Rush to Spend Even More as 2009 Session Comes to Close

WASHINGTON – With the House of Representatives finishing up the year today with appropriations measures and a hike in the debt limit, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., didn’t mince words when discussing her views on the Democrat’s year-end agenda.

“This is nothing but more of the same: more spending, more taxes and little to show for it,” said the 2nd District congresswoman.

“My colleagues on the other side of the aisle are pushing an agenda with more spending on programs that can’t even spend what they have now. And they’re hiking the nation’s debt limit to $12.4 trillion so they can borrow the money they need to do it. It’s irresponsible, it’s ill-conceived and it’s unlikely to meet with any more success than what we’ve seen with the first stimulus package.

Capito noted the troubling state of the job market and expressed skepticism that the Democrat’s latest “jobs” bill would realistically address it. She also raised objections to Democratic efforts to raid TARP funds that were originally pegged to help pay down the debt.

“Don’t be misled, this is not a ‘jobs’ bill,” she said. “Last time I checked, after passing a $787 billion stimulus package, the national unemployment rate is still in double digits and West Virginia’s unemployment rate is on the rise.”

“Instead of repeating the mistakes of the original stimulus so my colleagues can feign concern on jobs, let’s offer real relief for small business owners and put a stop to the troubling anti-growth policies that continue to stem from this congress.”

This Note Is Legal Tender For All Debts, Public and Private

If you look at a piece of US paper money, there is a disclaimer on it somewhere claiming "this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private." As any Ron Paul supporter will correctly explain, that means that those pieces of paper are money and have worth because the government says so and for no other reason.

For a long time, that backing meant something. One could put full faith and credit into the money because the government was always able to support the currency. The obligation of the United States government to pay its debts, much like the money itself at one time, was as good as gold. As any individual knows, when one takes out too many loans, or fails to pay their bills on time, their credit is undermined. Spending money frivolously causes most of the problems that result in this state of affairs.

That is where the United States is at right now. China questions our credit. Automobile dealerships and medical facilities question our credit. The "cash for clunkers" deal is approaching fiasco status because the government is not paying the credits due to the dealers. Medicare is habitually behind on its payments. These problems undermine faith and credit in our government's handling of the economy.

That goes back to those little pieces of paper we carry around with us. What happens when the faith and credit extended to our government are replaced with suspicion and fear? Our currency then loses value, causing inflation. Lenin did say that high taxes and inflation were the perfect combination with which to destroy the political influence of the middle class.

Regardless of why this is happening, the danger is real. Credit, once lost, is hard to regain even for the United States of America. Admittedly this process has taken many years and presidents to hit this stage. However, Obama is severely exasperating the problem by proposing new costly initiatives instead of trying to scale back the burdens on taxpayers and the system itself.

Gary Howell, Paul Mattox Discuss Corridor H on "Hannity"

Fox's Hannity program targeted Corridor H on Thursday night as the latest example of unnecessary pork barrel spending. The program tried to attack both the spending as well as the project itself.



In attacking Corridor H, Fox News fell short of the mark. They correctly pointed out the sparsity of population without mentioning the industry in and around Moorefield. While it is true that the four lane will not link up with Interstate 66 at Front Royal, the terminus will be only several miles from Interstate 81.

Paul Mattox, representing the West Virginia Department of Transportation, described the economic development possibilities as well as the fact that Corridor H forms part of the Washington-Baltimore evacuation plan. Anyone who has traveled Interstates 95, 70, and 81 during the holidays understands that these are not sufficient for removing the entire metropolitan area from danger. Corridor H and US 50 must be part of the plan. Even more importantly, it was never demonstrated how the road will provide a more direct and efficient link between Washington and cities such as Louisville, Columbus, Cincinnati, and St. Louis while reducing traffic on overburdened Interstate 70.

Gary Howell explained, however, that an "addiction to earmarks" prevents West Virginians form finding more cost effective ways to fund highways. South Carolina used long term bonds to construct highways on their own, saving taxpayers money because inflation will devalue the debt. This innovative approach, if utilized by states more often, could break the cycle of dependency on the federal government while saving money. Howell supports Corridor H for economic development as well as its national and regional utility, but took issue with the use of earmarks.

Defending the Indefensible: Pork

In this video the Utah Senator is trying to defend why we should be paying to kill crickets in his state. Please watch.

Water Studies are money down the drain

Is this the time when the taxpayers of Mineral County collectively say, “We told you so and thanks for wasting our money?” When the County Commission announced they were going to spend taxpayer’s money on a water study of Knobley Mountain to see if there was a sufficient supply for future growth many of us wondered aloud why? If you have lived in Mineral County any length of time you know there are natural springs all over Knobley. You know there is a bottled water plant in Fountain using spring water and the city of Keyser has a dam on Limestone that they can’t empty because water from Knobley Mountain springs keep refilling it, despite their efforts.

Now the county wants to do a bigger water study and at bigger cost as well. DHHR notified the county they are making available $92,000 to assist with the study. That is just to assist, because the cost of the total study is going to be some where around a quarter million dollars.

If they spend this quarter million of your tax dollars; we already know what they are going to find. We will find that Piedmont gets its water from Savage River in Maryland, the Elk Garden area gets its water from Grant County, and Ridgeley and Wiley Ford are connected to Cumberland’s water supply for now. This means that many of the people of Mineral County don’t even rely on water from within the county. History will also show that even in the worst drought, the Keyser and New Creek water systems have never ran out of water. Also keep in mind that the Limestone Dam is a water reservoir for the city of Keyser that is no longer used and they can’t seem to empty it, because to much water flows into it.

The study will also find that Jennings Randolph Lake has 41,000 acre feet of water in storage that is enough to supply every man, woman and child with 100 gallons a day for over 13 years if the river stopped flowing to day. There is an additional 51,000 acre feet used for water quality management, so we are looking at over 27 years worth of water if it didn’t rain for the next 27 years and nobody in Mineral County uses any of that water now!

So basically the County Commission wants to spend more taxpayer money on a water study to learn what we already know; that we don’t live in the Sahara Desert and Mineral County has plenty of water resources to tap if we need. Perhaps Mineral County has so much water because the drain is plugged up from the County Commission stuffing money down it.

It is time for the County Commission to stop wasting the taxpayer’s money on water studies. If you want to spend our tax dollars on water, then we believe you should spend it on providing additional water and water safety. Connect the different water systems in the county together, so that in an emergency the separate water systems can help each other. If a chemical truck were to wreck and spill its contents into New Creek, then a connected system would allow Keyser to bring in water from Elk Garden or Piedmont. If water quality becomes and issue in Fort Ashby, then water could be supplied from Fountain or elsewhere in a connected system.

In short the County Commission should spend the taxpayer’s money wisely or not at all.

Senator Byrd Addresses the Senate

Big Schools Bad for Students

Ironically I maybe one of the youngest people in West Virginia to go to a one room school house. It was only for kinder garden and shortly after the county closed the school for a modern open class room design that went K trough 8. What I do remember most is everybody knew everybody else, and that is a great learning environment.

Now statistics support my kinder garden experience. Nearly every study ever done says small schools breed better students. Across the state you will usually find the highest average test scores in small schools. When a student is not a number, they have a better learning experience.

The state and county have to achieve a balance between the money they have for schools and the needs of the students. Unfortunately the money has been winning out for years. We have gotten large nondescript buildings that end up being more a place to warehouse kids that to provide them a good learning experience. As we try to compete in the modern global market place we must provide a better place to learn.

We know the solution to provide a better education. That answer is small schools where the students have more one on one interaction with their teachers. Learning problems and special abilities can be identified early. This allows special attention to be given when needed.

The excuse for building large schools has been economies of scale, but we must look beyond that. In many cases increase maintenance may lower cost by keeping our older schools in good shape longer. When it comes to educating our next generation our money should go into best education experience, not the most cost effective building.

Holding Taxes Down

It seems that politicians always want to raise taxes. The reason is they like to spend money. It is easy to spend money when it is not your own. What we need are laws to control spending for those politicians that forget they should take greater care when spending other peoples money.

The way to do it is to limit revenue. If government gets an increase in revenue, they just spend it. In Mineral County personal property taxes have increased substantially, and the government just spent it all.

I would suggest that any budget increases within the county be limited to the previous years budget plus inflation and population change. The government doesn't need to grow any faster than inflation. This limits government to its current size. Allowing for increases based on population also is reasonable. Any increase in population will require an increase in services, but not an increase that is greater than the growth rate.

Now if the government receives more money than the increase from inflation or population allows, then government will be required to give that money back to the tax payer in the form of refunds. After all it is our money they are taking, they should be giving the access back.

This has worked in other states and should work here to control out of control tax increases and government expansion. It is only common sense to not take to much from the taxpayer.