TheFrontPageCover
~ Featuring ~
Paul Ryan -- Still an Entitlements
Reform Crusader?
by David Limbaugh 
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Tuesday Top Headlines 
by Political Editors: liar-Clinton World fumes over Comey book tour: “He’s now lying” (Fox News).
New Report: How social media giants Facebook, Twitter, YouTube suppress conservative speech (CNS News) .
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Trump asking Arab nations to replace U.S. military in Syria after defeat of ISIS (The Hill) .
Trump puts the brakes on new Russian sanctions, reversing Haley’s announcement (The Washington Post) .
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China engaged in massive theft of U.S. technology, analysts reveal (Fox News) .
The Supreme Court just handed the Trump administration a loss on immigration — and Gorsuch was the tie-breaking vote (Business Insider) .
California agreed to send National Guard troops to the border but won’t let them do anything (Hot Air) .
Paying billions more online: Supreme Court takes up internet sales tax case (NBC News) .
Government watchdog says Pruitt’s $43,000 phone booth broke the law (Reason) .
Laura Ingraham’s audience 20% higher than before boycott (The Daily Wire) .
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Evil Christians oppress secular New Yorkers with delicious chicken sandwiches (The Babylon Bee) .
Policy: Trump’s pardon of Scooter Libby was the right thing to do (City Journal) .
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Former AG Mukasey - Comey Book Violates
FBI Regs, liar-nObama Knew About liar-Clinton Server
{ rickwells.us } ~ Maria Bartiromo asks for former Attorney General Michael Mukasey’s take on the extraordinary situation... where former FBI Director Comey is out peddling his book “at the same time that Congressional leadership is asking for documents that they haven’t received yet pertaining to the FBI’s handling of the liar-Clinton investigation as well as the Trump administration.” Mukasey says, “There are publication guidelines for people who work at the FBI. And the first publication guideline is that you’re not supposed to write about the substantive issues in pending open investigations. That seems to have been violated with Mr. Comey’s book.” Mukasey continues, “But beyond that, I think that it bears a good, long look into how he came to drop the charges with respect to liar-Hillary Clinton. As your last guest pointed out, he was acting in several capacities, most of them unauthorized, in doing that. But there are a couple of clues in plain view that really need to be followed.”... https://rickwells.us/ag-mukasey-comey-obama/.
Mueller's Botched Counterintelligence Efforts
by Daniel Ashman
{ americanthinker.com } ~ Theoretically speaking, one of the FBI’s core responsibilities is counterintelligence. The FBI lists eight priorities on their website and counterintelligence is second... “Protect the United States against foreign intelligence operations and espionage.” Robert Mueller, when he was the FBI Director, had the responsibility of stopping Russian intelligence operations against America. He reigned a full twelve years, from 2001 to 2013, marking the longest tenure of any director apart from Hoover. He had ample opportunity to run American counterintelligence as he saw fit, and even to put in place a foundation, set a culture, and hire the right people, to protect America going forward. However, Mueller was unable to bring victory to the intelligence department of the FBI. Indeed, Russia’s intelligence services clowned America numerous times. Mueller’s mindset can clearly be seen in testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on June 13th, 2013. In his opening statement, he listed the FBI’s top priorities: terrorists, homegrown violent extremists, and cybercrime. Counterintelligence didn’t make the top of his list, the bottom of the list, or even get a passing moment during the three hours of testimony. In fact, when Mueller brought up cybercrime, he even listed off what entities may commit cybercrime, but left out state actors and certainly didn’t name Russia. Given Mueller’s biography, none of this should be surprising. He was in law school around 1970 and worked as a lawyer up through 2001. He has good training to prosecute criminals. But it is another matter entirely to recognize, understand, prevent, and stop the activities of a foreign intelligence service... https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/04/muellers_botched_counterintelligence_efforts.html .
Senators Pledge To Kill Pompeo Nomination
by ROBERT DONACHIE
{ dailycaller.com } ~ Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said Sunday he is committed to opposing CIA Director Mike Pompeo’s confirmation... to become the next secretary of state. “I have decided to vote against him to be secretary of state. … We have a president who is anti-diplomacy, and I worry that Mike Pompeo has shown the same tendency to oppose diplomacy,” Kaine told CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday. “I don’t want a secretary of state who is going to exacerbate President Trump’s tendencies to oppose diplomacy.” Democratic senators on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee grilled Pompeo Thursday in an hours long session...Kaine shouldn't even be a senator. Wake up Virginia..
Rod Rosenstein Is Going To The
Supreme Court And Washington Is Buzzing
by KEVIN DALEY
{ dailycaller.com } ~ Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will make his debut at the Supreme Court on April 23... representing the U.S. government in a case concerning reduced criminal sentences and the federal sentencing guidelines. The case, Chavez-Meza v. U.S., asks how much detail judges must provide when reducing a convict’s sentence due to an amendment to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. Prior to his appointment as the number two official at the Department of Justice (DOJ), Rosenstein was chief federal prosecutor in Maryland for 12 years. As such, he is a natural candidate to argue an appeal concerning retroactive sentencing reductions... http://dailycaller.com/2018/04/15/rod-rosenstein-supreme-court/?utm_medium=email .
Special Prosecutorial Abuse
by Carl M. Cannon
{ realclearpolitics.com } ~ We’re supposed to be reassured that the FBI agents who raided the offices and home of Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael A. Cohen... were, in Cohen’s words, “courteous” and “respectful.” The president’s attorney was understandably grateful that the agents didn’t replicate the FBI’s tactics at the home of Paul Manafort, Trump’s onetime campaign manager. Busting in before dawn, guns drawn, with a “no knock” warrant while Manafort and his wife were in bed, the agents frisked Mrs. Manafort while she was still in her nightclothes. Perhaps Cohen thinks if he sounds reasonable, he can appease Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor who ordered Manafort’s arrest, or his other federal prosecutors behind this raid. Or maybe Cohen simply developed the quickest case of Stockholm syndrome in history. Whatever his reasons, a line has been violated. The government is going after lawyers now, as part of an investigation that feels as though policy differences and partisan politics have been criminalized... https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/04/15/special_prosecutorial_abuse_136813.html.
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Paul Ryan -- Still an Entitlements
Reform Crusader?
by David Limbaugh
{ townhall.com } ~ Concerning Paul Ryan's decision to leave Congress, I am more troubled by its implications for entitlement reform than the impact it may have on the GOP agenda or the November elections.
The Wall Street Journal's editorial page said, "Ryan will leave Congress in January with no substantial progress on reforming Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, few lawmakers interested in picking up the torch, and a clear signal that prospects are dim for any big overhaul in the foreseeable future."
Entitlement reform is not only the least sexy of all proposed legislation; it is the kiss of death for any would-be Republican reformer, because Republicans are already depicted by leftist demagogues as reverse Robin Hoods and curbing federal benefits for the poor and elderly would just "confirm" the slander.
It is tragic that we haven't the maturity to responsibly discuss amending these programs to prevent the inevitable national bankruptcy they guarantee in the absence of reform. Republicans are culpable on this, to be sure, but it's nothing compared with Democrats, who would rather demagogue than breathe.
I have been concerned about these runaway federal programs for decades but became especially interested during the Barack liar-nObama years, when Ryan gained national prominence for making them a national issue -- for a while.
This was Ryan at his best -- a policy wonk, meticulously crunching the numbers, preparing the position papers explaining their implications and presenting them to Congress and the public in intelligible language. I was encouraged when Mitt Romney chose Ryan as his running mate, because I saw Ryan's potential position as increasing the chances that the country would finally tackle the problem.
Though the details of the math might put some to sleep and experts might disagree on the timetable for our economic destruction, it is indisputable that unless we legislatively reform the programs, the country will swallow itself in debt. Any solution involves some pain, but the longer we delay the greater the pain will be and the more difficult reform will become politically.
Part of the problem is that many have been crying wolf for decades over the looming dangers of federal deficits and the accumulated federal debt. As no catastrophe has ever materialized, it's no wonder the public has been lulled into complacency and disregards the predictions of doom.
It is human nature to focus more on immediate problems than on long-term ones, and Washington's ever increasing demands on the public through onerous taxes and unending regulatory control keep us plenty busy. Endless partisan warfare also militates against soberly addressing this issue.
Some criticize Ryan for dropping the ball on entitlement reform after spending years convincing us that we ignore this issue at our own national peril.
But let's be realistic here. Does anyone think that in this politically hostile, hate-Trump atmosphere fomented by the media and the Democratic Party -- with the distractions they spawn over the Russia-collusion myth -- Ryan would have had a snowball's chance in Hades of getting to first base on any entitlement reform proposal?
Does that mean Ryan or other Republicans should abandon reform? No. But when you are under relentless fire, you'd better fire back right then, or you won't be around to fight another day.
And it's not just Democratic demagoguery and the unpopularity of reforms that stand in the way of action but also the tyranny of the urgent. Ryan didn't choose the speakership. He even resisted the position. But he eventually relented. It soon became clear that the mood of the country was to work on Trump's agenda, and that did not include entitlement reform. Ryan can be fairly criticized perhaps, along with many others, for the GOP failure on repealing and replacing liar-nObamacare, but if he had dreams of addressing long-term entitlement reform in the short run as speaker under Trump, they would have been just that -- dreams.
The hard, cold fact is that we do have more pressing problems than entitlement reform, and we always will -- until we finally bankrupt ourselves. But the political climate has made current attention to such reform almost impossible.
Every year, entitlements will gobble up an increasing percentage of the federal budget, so that in the near future, even draconian cuts in discretionary spending will not put a dent in the federal deficit.
People often lament that democracy contains a poison pill that guarantees its own demise, in that the voting public will vote itself money from the public trough and commit suicide by greed. Yes, we have a constitutional republic, but our representatives are democratically elected.
This poison has infected our system in multiple ways -- with the redistribution of income, certain people abusing federal power to control others, and the possible bankruptcy of future generations at the behest of irresponsible present generations.
I have no illusions that we're going to make appreciable headway in the near term or that Democrats will ever approach this problem in good faith to allow us to achieve reform by consensus. But because the budgetary doomsday clock is ticking, we don't have the luxury of forever shelving it.
As such, I am just going to be Pollyannaish for a change and humbly propose and pray that after Paul Ryan returns to his family and rejoins the private sector, he carves out time from his new position, whatever it is, to use his expertise and passion on entitlements to crusade for reform and keep that torch burning before it is too late for anything other than extreme reform. If you say that that reform is impossible, then you are necessarily saying the country is headed for destruction -- sooner than we imagine. Are you willing to live with that?
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