The Front Page Cover
~ Featuring ~
Illinois' Fiscal Dumpster Fire Is a Lesson
by Allyne Caan
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Top Headlines
Trump questions Mueller's investigation: It's full of "liar-Hillary Clinton supporters." (Washington Examiner)
Sealing and transfer of Susan Rice records angers House committee investigating "unmasking." (The Washington Times)
Who needs Paris? U.S. is well on its way to lower emissions with economic, technological changes. (The Washington Times)
Trump administration rejects UN Human Rights Council's "safe abortion" text. (CNS News)
Judge halts DHS attempt to deport 100 criminals to Iraq; Give 14-day reprieve. (The Washington Times)
Canadian sniper posts longest kill shot — 3,450 meters. (The Globe and Mail)
A week after Illinois attempts mass murder of GOP congressmen, an Illinois man is charged with threats to assassinate President Trump. (Bellville News-Democrat)
The FBI's briefing on the GOP baseball shooting was bizarre. (The Federalist)
Senate bill ditches Trump plan to privatize air traffic control. (Washington Examiner)
FCC proposes $120 million fine for alleged robocall scammer. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Policy: Circuit court win for religious freedom on gay marriage. (The Daily Signal)
Policy: Taking on the scourge of opioids. (National Affairs)
~The Patriot Post
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All She Did Was Steal An American’s
Identity, “Evil” Trump Wants To Deport Her
by Rick Wells
{rickwells.us} ~ It’s almost humorous to hear the pro-illegal alien agitators talk about the problems created for Americans whose identity is stolen by foreigners as if it’s a non-crime, something that nobody should be concerned with... For the person who has go dance through hoops and fill out stacks of forms, write letters and spend their time, it’s a very big deal. It’s fraud, a felony that Americans would likely serve prison time for committing. If an illegal does it, it’s a necessity that the cruel American system forced upon them. They have to feed their families so “esta bien.” The transnational squatter in the video has been here for twenty years and still speaks no English. She supposedly held a news conference, in which there were as many cameras as supporters to pitch her pathetic, feel sorry for her case to the public. Through the narrator she describes the enforcement of our laws as an attack not only on her, but on the entire immigrant community. It’s just like enforcing rules against armed robbery are an assault on the bank-robbing community or child-molestation laws are an affront to the pedophile community. It’s a good thing; they’re not a community, they’re criminals...http://rickwells.us/steal-americans-identity-evil-trump-wants-deport/
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Podesta Under Oath: What Will He Reveal?
by Robert Chamber
{citizen-action.com} ~ According to the latest report on Thursday, John Podesta, liar-Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign manager, is expected to testify before the Congress regarding his role in Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential elections... The report regarding Podesta’s testimony comes as the House Intelligence Committee continues to investigate the Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with the Russian government in order to influence the elections. Podesta is known to be central figure in the 2016 elections, not because of his performance as liar-Clinton’s campaign manager, but because of his leaked emails that were handed over to WikiLeaks. The leaked emails, which amounted to thousands, were used to excoriate the candidate and are pointed at, as the main reason behind liar-Clinton’s downfall...Also his involvement with Russia. http://www.citizen-action.com/podesta-oath-will-reveal/article5479.
4 Conservative Senators Say They
Can’t Vote for GOP’s Draft Health Care Bill
by Rachel del Guidice
{dailysignal.com} ~ Four conservative senators promptly said they can’t support the draft of a health care bill released Thursday by the Senate’s Republican leadership as a cure for liar-nObamacare... “Currently, for a variety of reasons, we are not ready to vote for this bill, but we are open to negotiation and obtaining more information before it is brought to the floor,” Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Mike Lee of Utah wrote in a formal statement. The four Republicans said they oppose the Senate leadership plan, called the ‘‘Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017,” because it does not fully repeal and replace liar-nObamacare...http://dailysignal.com/2017/06/22/four-conservative-senators-say-they-wont-support-the-current-gop-health-care-draft/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningBell&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWldJd1pETXhOV1F4WkRaaSIsInQiOiJKcVo0Q0JBcFdPbWdOZ3JSQW5FaENNZStYSjYzZGROWU1OemtvS3VnSXRFYXRqM2VBa3VLZWFKSnc1blRxcVNBVmsxd2lvR1I3U21ET0d1eG9KQ0hvMjJGMGlvN3JkSHVmVVwvMDRvRlA4dm92bzdsb3JuUTNOTW9kXC9qdVRHUml6In0%3D.
Trump Admin, Congress Offer New
Hope for Families of U.S. Hostages in Iran
by Susan Crabtree
{freebeacon.com} ~ Families and advocates of U.S. prisoners held in Iran are encouraged by a new focus from the Trump administration and Congress to secure the safe return of their loved ones... after experiencing several disappointments during the final year of President liar-nObama's tenure. The House Foreign Affairs Committee plans to hold a hearing in July featuring testimony from families of U.S. hostages held in Iran. Next week, the panel's Middle East and North Africa subcommittee will mark up a bipartisan resolution calling on Iran to unconditionally release all U.S. citizens and permanent legal residents. The mark-up also will include previously passed language pressing Tehran to follow through on its promises, made public early last year, of assistance in the case of Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007, and condemn Iran's persecution of its Baha'i minority...http://freebeacon.com/national-security/trump-admin-congress-offer-new-hope-for-families-of-u-s-hostages-in-iran/?utm_source=Freedom+Mail&utm_campaign=74d26bb633-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_06_22&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b5e6e0e9ea-74d26bb633-45611665.
House Republicans Plan to Vote on
a Pair of Bills That Tackle Illegal Immigration
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R., Va.) / AP
by Cameron Cawthorne
{freebeacon.com} ~ House Republicans are hoping to move forward a pair of bills that tackle illegal immigration next week to carry out President Donald Trump's agenda of enforcing immigration laws... One of the bills would boost penalties for deported immigrants that try to re-enter the country and the other would target so-called sanctuary cities, Politico reported. The former bill was named "Kate's Law" after a young woman named Kate Steinle, who was shot and killed in San Francisco by an illegal immigrant who repeatedly was deported but returned. The latter, targeting cities and counties that do not cooperate with federal immigration officials, was called "No Sanctuaries for Criminals Act."...http://freebeacon.com/issues/house-republicans-plan-to-vote-on-a-pair-of-bills-that-tackle-illegal-immigration/.
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Illinois' Fiscal Dumpster Fire Is a Lesson
By Allyne Caan: If you recently bought a lottery ticket in Illinois, the odds are stacked against you — way against you. The Land of Lincoln has gotten itself into such a financial pickle that it may not even be able to pay out lotto winnings, meaning the chance of striking it big would be, literally, zero.
Years of fiscal mismanagement have finally caught up with Illinois, and the state is now facing $130 billion in unfunded public pension liabilities and nearly $15 billion more in debt. And because of certain court-ordered payments the state is required to make, the Illinois comptroller recently sounded the alarm that mandated bills will equal 100% of the state's monthly revenue. In case the obvious needs emphasis, this is a problem.
It's so bad even Republican Governor Bruce Rauner didn't mince words. "We're like a banana republic," he said recently. "We can't manage our money."
The crisis should hardly be a surprise. As George Will noted last year, despite the state constitution's requirement of a balanced budget, Illinois hasn't had such a budget in 25 years.
Additionally, as the Illinois Policy Institute (IPI) notes, pension reform has been staring state lawmakers in the face for 20 years. But objects at rest tend to remain at rest, and nothing brings out the inertia in government-union-backed elected officials like suggestions of public pension reform. Hence, the state's staggering pension debt today.
Gov. Rauner campaigned on lowering the state's income tax. Butting heads with the Democrat-controlled legislature, however, has led to nearly three years of budget gridlock. Illinois has not had a full-state budget since Rauner's election in 2014, instead passing stop-gap measures — just like Big Brother at the federal level.
As Investor's Business Daily notes, "Not surprisingly, the Democrats would like higher taxes to fill the budget holes. ... At the heart of it all is the so-called Blue State model of governance of the Democratic Party. It views government as an ever-expanding and always-available ATM to meet all needs, social and otherwise, with a ready supply of taxpayer cash."
Yet as Margaret Thatcher noted with her typical wit, governments that apply the socialist approach of viewing taxpayers' money as government's money "traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people's money. It's quite a characteristic of them."
Unfortunately, it looks like Illinois hasn't fully learned this lesson. Instead of continuing to hold fast to the principles he's pledged allegiance to for three years, just yesterday, Rauner caved, offering to hike the state income tax by 32%, expand the sales tax, and add a new tax on cable and satellite TV.
The Wall Street Journal pulled no punches in a scathing editorial, calling Rauner's move a "capitulation" and "a political defeat by any definition."
Even worse, as the Journal notes, Rauner's offer doesn't include critical fiscal reforms and doesn't fix the pension crisis.
What will the state get for the capitulation? According to IPI, not much. Even with the tax hike, the state will likely be back in deficit by 2020. The Journal echoes this gloom, noting that while Rauner "may come out the political loser ... the citizens of Illinois will suffer the most." For that, it must be noted the real blame lies with the Chicago Democrats who really run the state. Rauner simply found the Chicago Machine to be too powerful.
While some are raising talks of a federal bailout, IPI's Ted Dabrowski rightly warns this is a terrible idea: "A federal intervention on that scale would permanently damage healthy competition among states for people, jobs and ideas."
Indeed, if lawmakers can run a state into the ground and then go to Uncle Sam for help, quickly lining up behind Illinois would be states like New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. (You'll notice they're all Democrat states.) Then there's Puerto Rico, the Democrat-heavy island that aims to become the 51st state in hopes of receiving such a bailout. But make no mistake, taxpayers in "flyover country" have little interest in rescuing these states from their own stupidity.
That's why Illinois' lesson should be a lesson for all states. Decades of recklessly overspending taxpayer dollars and overpromising cushy pension benefits for government workers are bound to catch up with you. That's one set of Mega Millions numbers you can count on.
~The Patriot Post
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