The Front Page Cover
~ Featuring ~
The Destruction of the West
by Left-wing Globalists
by Susan Stamper Brown
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The Bucks Don't Stop With the Debt Ceiling
By Brian Mark Weber: Congress is on vacation. Again. And while getting politicians out of Washington has its benefits, this year's break is ill-timed. When members of Congress reconvene on April 25, they'll have just four days to keep the government from shutting down as last year's continuing resolution expires.
The importance of tackling budget issues has even more symbolic power this time around: Were the government to shut down, it would come on President Donald Trump's 100th day in office. And we know the Leftmedia will jump at the chance to use that against the president and Republicans in Congress.
Now, once Congress comes back to town, don't expect either party to panic over an impending government shutdown. In particular, Democrats have the most to gain from a shutdown — they'll get credit with their base for the Great Resistance Against Trump, all while their accomplices in the press make sure Republicans get the blame.
But what about Republicans? After all, they control the White House, Senate and House. Surely we can rely on the GOP leadership to address this critical issue, right? Not so fast. Remember, this is the same Republican Congress that failed to agree on a bill to replace liar-nObamaCare after seven years of promises, which now jeopardizes tax reform or anything else of substance.
Thanks to the ineptitude of last year's Congress to reach an actual budget agreement, we're on the precipice of yet another government shutdown. In order to keep the government operating beyond April 29, Congress must vote on a budget or pass another continuing resolution in order to raise the debt ceiling. In laymen's terms, our elected officials are about to kick the can down the road once again. It's what they do best, and, frankly, it's what most voters want them to do. Everybody wants cuts until their favorite program is on the chopping block. And every program is somebody's favorite.
Republicans are simply too divided to agree on the budget. Some members are refusing to back any measure that defunds Planned Parenthood. Others won't compromise on defense and security spending. And President Trump wants billions for the border security and the wall. Democrats, with everything to gain from a shutdown, oppose just about anything the Republicans might want in a budget bill or a continuing resolution. Suddenly, Democrats have become the party of "no."
Even if Republicans can muster the courage to come up with a bill, they'll need 60 votes in the Senate. That's right. Senate Minority Leader Chuck clown-Schumer is licking his chops. Last month, clown-Schumer said, "If Republicans insist on inserting poison pill riders such as defunding Planned Parenthood, building a border wall, or starting a deportation force, they will be shutting down the government and delivering a severe blow to our economy." As far as the Democrats are concerned, it's their way or the highway.
House Speaker Paul Ryan sees the writing on the wall, and he's already signaling that health care, the border wall and tax reform will have to wait. Imagine that. Republicans, who now hold all the reins of power, still have to yield to Democrats in Congress to get something done.
There's a simple reason for this. When it comes time to get things done (or to stop them), Democrats march in lockstep. Republicans, by contrast, are a herd of cats scattering in a hundred directions.
What should worry Americans more than a temporary government shutdown is the long-term impact of our country's ever-growing debt. The overall share of the national budget needed just to service the debt will grow significantly in the coming years, leaving less funding for the military, infrastructure and other projects.
As the Cato Institute's Michael Tanner writes for National Review, "All of this budget maneuvering comes shortly after the Congressional Budget Office released an alarming new report warning that the national debt will double as a share of the national economy by mid-century. Interest payments on the debt will rise from $270 billion in 2017 to $768 billion in 2027, with catastrophic consequences for President Trump's agenda of economic and job growth."
The irony is that government shutdowns, which are usually short-lived and really have very little impact on the country, are characterized as the fall of the Roman Empire. Meanwhile, the long-term federal debt, which has the potential to seriously impact the economy, infrastructure, national defense and other major initiatives, isn't even a priority.
The situation is akin to losing sleep over how to make the minimum credit card payment without even thinking about the bank that's about to foreclose on your home.
Chances are, Republicans will go for minimum damage to their brand and work with Democrats to pass a continuing resolution before April 29. Gabrielle Levy writes in U.S. News and World Report that "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Minority Leader Chuck clown-Schumer of New York have been negotiating for months on a deal to fund the government and have told reporters the talks have made significant progress ahead of the deadline." While that may seem to be a positive development, a short-term deal this month will only set the stage for a real budget battle later this year.
~The Patriot Post
Once Again, CAIR Shows That Islamism
and Civil Rights Don't Mix
by Gregg Roman and Sam Westrop
by Gregg Roman and Sam Westrop
{meforum.org} ~ The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been claiming for years to be not merely the nation's preeminent Muslim civil rights group, but a defender of the civil rights of all Americans... In addition to denouncing alleged acts of "Islamophobia," representatives of the organization have been quick to condemn acts of antisemitism, police shootings of African Americans, anti-LGBTQ violence, and so forth, while expressing solidarity with every "progressive" cause under the sun. But peer beneath CAIR's carefully-crafted press releases and publicity stunts and it's clear that the group's reactionary Islamist roots are as strong as ever... http://www.meforum.org/6646/cair-shows-islamism-and-civil-rights-dont-mix?utm_source=Middle+East+Forum&utm_campaign=82d05353d2-roman%2FWestrop_2017_04_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_086cfd423c-82d05353d2-33703665&goal=0_086cfd423c-82d05353d2-33703665
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How Erdogan's Victory Might
Be Europe's Defeat
by Abigail R. Esman
by Abigail R. Esman
{investigativeproject.org} ~ Over lunch in Istanbul last week, a friend and I spoke about the upcoming Turkish referendum. "Many European Turks are likely to vote 'yes,'" I cautioned my friend, whom I knew was planning to vote 'no,'... or against the measure to grant President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unlimited powers. A "yes" vote, by contrast, would end the democratic parliamentary government established by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the republic, and in the eyes of most Western leaders, establish Erdogan as the Muslim world's newest dictator. My friend was visibly angered. "Then let them, with all their rights and freedoms, come here to live," she retorted. "How dare they think that they can take these rights from us when we are the ones who have to live with the result?" The outcome of Sunday's referendum showed a Turkey split almost exactly in half, with 51 percent "yes" and just under 49 percent voting "no." Or did it?... http://www.investigativeproject.org/6020/how-erdogan-victory-might-be-europe-defeat#
.Kansas Secretary of State Obtains First Conviction for Noncitizen Voting
by Warren Mass
{thenewamerican.com} ~ On April 12, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach announced that he has obtained his first conviction of a non-U.S. citizen who illegally voted in a Kansas election... A press release posted by Kobach’s office on his departmental web page noted that he had secured a guilty plea on April 7 in the voter fraud case of Victor David Garcia Bebek, a noncitizen who pleaded guilty to three counts of voting without being qualified, a class A misdemeanor. The case was brought in Sedgwick County District Court. Bebek voted on three separate occasions, including a 2012 special election, the 2012 general election, and the 2014 general election. Under the plea agreement, Bebek was placed on unsupervised probation for a period of up to three years and must pay a $5,000 fine. Probation will terminate upon payment of the fine...
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NYT Gives Opinion Page Space
to Bonafide Terrorist
by M.J. Randolph
{truthrevolt.org} ~ The New York Times opened up valuable space in its opinion section this weekend for Palestinian Marwan Barghouti. His opinion piece, titled, "Why We Are On Hunger Strike in Israel's Prisons,"... Wow -- he's a regular Martin Luther King, Jr, isn't he? What selfless pacifism! Not so fast. The fifty-seven-year-old Barghouti is currently serving five consecutive life sentences after having been found responsible in 2004 for several murders and organizing an attempted car bombing at the Malcha Mall in Jerusalem. How did the New York Times describe this terrorist in his bio? "Marwan Barghouti is a Palestinian leader and parliamentarian," they wrote. As The Washington Examiner's Becket Adams wrote, "Well, that's one way to put it." Perhaps after being shamed by Adams -- and being linked to via Instapundit -- the New York Times decided to elaborate on the terrorist's bio:.. http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/nyt-gives-opinion-page-space-bonafide-terrorist
.Palestinians Aren't Ready
to Make Peace with Israel...
by Ghaith al-Omari
{mosaicmagazine.com} ~ In his Mosaic essay, “Do Palestinians Want a Two-State Solution?” Daniel Polisar concludes that the Palestinian public does not, in fact, want such a solution... Instead, by large and consistent majorities, Palestinians support the maximalist solution of a Palestinian state “from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.” Whether Israelis want a two-state solution, and if so under what conditions, is of course a separate matter. If we accept Polisar’s conclusion, what are the policy implications for those who still hope to reach a two-state solution? First: is achieving that goal dependent, as Polisar indicates, on “policies that seek to reduce decisively popular Palestinian support for a maximalist state,” or can the goal be achieved despite negative public views? Second, if the latter is the case, would a strictly transactional peace deal between the parties suffice, or should any such deal provide for the transformation of existing public perceptions?... https://mosaicmagazine.com/response/2017/04/palestinians-arent-ready-to-make-peace-with-israel-that-doesnt-rule-out-a-peace-deal
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