THE RHEA COUNTY REPUBLICAN

ADVANCING THE CONSERVATIVE CAUSE

Vol. 1 – No. 10

December 2017

RHEA COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Keith Flatness, Chairman

Bitsy Gryder, Vice Chairman

Donna Taylor, Secretary

Sheila Larson, Treasurer

Larry Pendergrass, Vice Treasurer

Linda Pendergrass, Past Chairman

Marv Keener, Chaplain

Gary Drinkard, Parliamentarian

Jim Murphy, PAC Chair

DECEMBER MEETING

The December meeting will be held on Thursday, 7 December, at 7:00 PM, at the Rhea County Sheriff’s Training Center, 711 Eagle Ln, Evensville, TN. Items to be discussed include planning activities for the next Reagan Day Dinner. We look forward to seeing you there!

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN

[No comments were offered by the Chairman by the release date. – Editor]

MINUTES FROM THE PREVIOUS MEETING

The Rhea County Republican Party held a chili supper on 2 November 2017. No official business was conducted on that date, therefore, no minutes were taken. However, 35 of our members attended and a good time was held by all. – Editor.

TREASURER’S REPORT

A Treasurer’s Report for October 2017 was not made available by the time of publication of the December issue of The Rhea County Republican. The most recent Treasurer’s Report received is published below. – Editor.

Southeast Bank

Statement Dates 1 September – 30 September 2017

Previous Balance	$12,524.15
Deposits/Credits	.00
Checks (1) Debits (0)	$100.00
Service Charge	.00
Interest Paid	$1.54
Ending Balance	$12,425.69

ANNOUNCEMENTS

This section is provided for our readers to make announcements about activities in their area. Readers are encouraged to do so. Please e-mail your announcements to pyrope84045@mypacks.net – Editor.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities, and the smallest minority on earth is the individual. – Ayn Rand

COMMENTS FROM OUR REPRESENTATIVES

In a statement following the passage of HR 2810 National Defense Authorization Act of 2018, Scott DesJarlais (R-TN 4^th District), offered the following statement.

“The United States has the best fighting force in the world, but we’ve been asking them to do more with less . . . The 0bama Administration’s reset with Russia encouraged aggression in Eastern Europe. China and North Korea are threatening U.S. allies in the Pacific.

“Projecting weakness endangers American. This bill makes clear the U.S. will protect our national security. It fulfills Congress’ number one duty – to provide for the common defense. The safety of our men and women in uniform is paramount. Without them, freedom and prosperity would be impossible.”

Further in his comments, Rep. DesJarlais explained how the new NDAA would also ensure tax dollars that fund our national defense are spent more efficiently.

“The latest defense bill mandates a first-ever Pentagon audit. It reforms private contracting and acquisition of everything from staples to submarines to reduce waste at our most important federal agency and also largest bureaucracy.”

RANDOM THOUGHTS

A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. – Milton Friedman

COMMENTS FROM OUR READERS

[Readers are cordially invited to offer their announcements and comments. E-mail to pyrope84045@mypacks.net to do so. Thank you. – Editor]

Harvey Boudreaux, a reader from Lake Charles, LA offered the following:

Scott Pruitt, EPA Administrator has had to increase his security detail to 24/7. He was the guy who shredded Al Gore’s global warming lies. According to an article by the Wall Street Journal editorial board, Mr. Pruitt has received more than seventy “credible” death threats. Some of the threats mentioned Mr. Pruitt’s home address. The security detail have apprehended suspects prowling around in Mr. Pruitt’s neighborhood.

In spite of the unusually high number of death threats, Democrat law makers have claimed the enhanced security is a waste of taxpayer dollars. Liberal columnist Mark Morford (San Francisco, CA), argued that the death threats against Pruitt were justified.

Dr. Merrily Salyer, a reader from Sterling, VA offers the following observation:

Several evenings ago I watched Tucker Carlson interviewing Donald Trump and once again was amazed by how strong Trump’s ego is. In psychoanalytic parlance the ego is seen as a positive, not a negative. It is viewed as encompassing all the ego functions such as intelligence, judgement, insight, reality testing, concentration, attention, memory, motor functions, emotionality, ability to maintain a sense of humor, etc., with intelligence being the master ego function that rules over all the others. I find it a very interesting area of psychoanalytic though. It helps to understand how people tick. In any event, watching Trump and how he deals with the crises around him (not politically, but his thought process or ego function in operations as cited above), his ability to be aware of the intensity of some people’s hatred of him, knowing that others really love and admire him, being undaunted and unfazed while maintaining his equanimity and humor about it all as he focuses intensely on his mission rather than become distracted by these side issues. Many people would crumble under the pressure. Not him. He was telling tucker that when he took on the job he knew he would have to go through hell but didn’t realize it would be far more than that and with a laugh and a twinkle in his eye, eh said it’s fine, it’s all good, or something reassuring like that, implying not to worry, its’ all going to work out well. I found it fascinating. I hope you did too.

Rochelle Foster, a reader in Eads, CO offered the following:

We owe a debt of gratitude to Representative Ken Buck, (R-CO, 4^th District) for his having sponsored HR 1132 Political Appointee Burrowing Prevention Act, to amend Title 5 U.S. Code, to provide for a two-year prohibition on employment in a career civil service job for any former political appointee. This bill, if passed, would in time eliminate or seriously weaken the “Deep State.”

ACTION ITEMS

This is a new feature in The Rhea County Republican. The reader is invited to call to the attention of others topics of interest e.g. pending legislation, local events, and other matters where contacting our elected representatives might help sway decisions they make. By way of examples: 1. If a bill is pending before Congress and voting a particular way would be in our mutual interest, the reader may provide a link to such legislation, explain their position for or against it, and ask other readers to contact their representatives to urge them to vote in the way that advances conservatism. 2. If a reader has an opinion on a particular condition in their District that they would like to see changed, the reader may offer an explanation of such condition and ask other readers to contact the appropriate government entity to speak up for the aggrieved individual. Remember folks it’s like Hillary Clinton said – “We’re stronger together.” J Please e-mail your action items to pyrope84045@mypacks.net – Editor

RANDOM THOUGHTS

In 1971 when Richard Nixon declared the “War on Drugs” 1.3% of the U.S. population was addicted to drugs. In forty six years there have been 50 million arrests, $1.3 Trillion spent, and 1.3% of the U.S. population is addicted to drugs. Lesson? It’s impossible to legislate morality.

LEGISLATIVE REPORT

30 October –

Senator Alexander sponsored Senate Resolution 314, designating 30 October 2017 as a National Day of Remembrance for Nuclear Weapons Program Workers. This resolution is in its first stages of the legislative process. It will typically be next considered by committee.

2 November –

Scott DesJarlais voted to pass HR 849 Protecting Seniors’ Access to Medicare Act of 2017. The bill passed by a vote of 307/111.

3 November –

Scott DesJarlais voted to pass HR 3922 Champion Act. This bill would extend funding for several public health programs and eliminates a provision in 0bamacare. The bill passed by a vote of 242/174.

Scott DesJarlais voted to pass (voice vote) HR 849 Protecting Seniors Access to Medicare Act. The bill passed by a vote of 307/111.

8 November –

Scott DesJarlais voted to pass HR 3043 Hydropower Policy Modernization Act of 2017. HR 3043 modernizes the regulatory permitting process and encourages the expansion of hydropower generation by improving administrative efficiency, accountability, and transparency; promotes new hydropower infrastructure; requires balanced and timely decision making, and; reduces duplicative oversight. The bill passed by a vote of 257/166.

9 November –

Scott DesJarlais voted to pass HR 2201 Micro Offering Safe Harbor Act. This bill amends the Securities Act of 1933, to exempt certain micro offering from the Act’s registration requirements. This will allow small businesses to operate with confidence that they are not in violation of the law when making a non-public securities offering when certain requirements limiting the scope of their offering are met. The bill will enable small businesses to expand by raising capital without having to take a loan from a bank. Predictably, all the “No” votes came from Democrats. The bill passed by a vote of 232/188.

13 November –

HR 3071 Federal Acquisition Savings Act of 2017 was passed unanimously by a voice vote and forwarded to the Senate for consideration. The bill requires a revision to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), directing agencies to consider equipment rental in any cost effectiveness analysis performed prior to acquiring a piece of equipment. The bill also requires the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to submit a report to Congress after enactment on agency decisions to obtain equipment by purchase, lease, or rental.

14 November –

Scott DesJarlais voted “Yea” on HR 2874 21^st Century Flood Reform Act. The measure reauthorizes the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) for five years, introduces private market competition, and provides programmatic reform to help policy holders. This measure combines the texts of six other bills – HR 1422, HR 1558, HR 2246, HR 2565, HR 2868, and HR 2875 to give property owners more flexibility in acquiring policies by ensuring there is a robust private market for flood insurance; requiring that mitigation funding is prioritized for properties that have experienced repeated flood losses, and; improving technology to ensure policies are based on accurate mapping data. The bill passed by a vote of 237/189.

Scott DesJarlais voted to pass HR 2810 National Defense Authorization Act of 2018. This bill authorizes and prioritizes funding for the Department of Defense (DoD), military activities and construction, and prescribes military personnel strengths for Fiscal Year 2018. The bill authorizes $613.8 billion in base funding, including a $28.5 billion increase above President Trump’s budget for essential readiness recovery. The bill also authorizes an additional $10 billion in the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund for base requirements, and an additional $64.5 billion in the OCO to cover contingency operations. When factoring in $7.5 billion for mandatory defense spending, a total of $695.9 billion is authorized to be appropriated. The bill passed by a vote of 356/70.

16 November –

Senators Alexander and Corker voted “Yea” on PN 556 Joseph Otting, of Nevada, to serve as Comptroller of the Currency for a period of five years. Mr. Otting’s nomination was confirmed by a vote of 57/43.

Scott DesJarlais voted to pass HR 1 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. While the bill would dramatically reduce corporate and individual income tax rates, it would add $1.7 trillion to the national debt over a period of ten years, but this amount would be offset by the $338 billion in savings derived by the repeal of the “Affordable” Care Act (0bamacare). The measure passed by a vote of 227/205. Predictably, virtually all Republicans in the high income and property tax states (California, New Jersey, and New York), voted against the bill.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

Where do the Democrats stand in the era of President Trump? They call our National Anthem and flag “symbols of oppression.” They look to Hollywood as America’s moral authority. They call us xenophobes and racists for wanting to stop illegal immigration. They call cops evil but Antifa thugs peaceful. They call Sharia Law tolerant while they attack Judeo-Christian values.

Thanks to America First Super Pac. – Editor

RANDOM THOUGHTS

From a transit bureaucrat. OK, let’s see (tapping chin pensively). How should we solve Nashville’s traffic problems? Oh! Let’s raise the sales tax to the highest rate in the nations and use those precious taxpayer dollars to build a hideously expensive two-track railroad in the middle of our busiest streets! – Compliments of the Nashville Tea Party.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

The Left wants us to fill out paperwork and submit our entire life history in order to exercise our rights under the 2^nd Amendment, but showing an I.D. to vote is “suppression.” Go figure.

EDITORIAL

Posted in the November issue of The Rhea County Republican was the outline of President Trump’s vision of tax reform. It is a very solid and many faceted plan to provide tax relief for citizens of every station of life, from the minimum wage earners to those at the top of the economic chain – those who create jobs.

It was to be expected, however, that the Democrats would rail and whine, accusing President Trump of looking out for his wealthy friends, but for the average conservative in the U.S., none probably expected the Republicans would be so divided – and downright partisan – when it came to eliminating federal deductions for state taxes on property and income.

There have been some outlandish – and downright misleading – remarks from the quasi-conservative Republicans in what we lovingly refer to as the “Blue States,” but none seemed more outlandish than the remarks made by Rep. Peter King (R-NY). Appearing on Maria Bartiromo’s TV program, Sunday Morning Futures, (Fox News Channel, 13 November), Mr. King told the audience that “New York subsidizes the rest of the country.”

In the context of his statement, Mr. King was implying that the wage earners in New York state paid so much in taxes that the revenues sent from New York, to Washington DC, fund the [major portion] of the federal budget. His remarks were inaccurate on numerous levels.

In terms of federal grants, New York is in the middle of the pack; 32.8% of its budget comes from Uncle Sam, https://taxfoundation.org/states-rely-most-federal-aid/ (Mississippi receives most at 40.9%). How does Rep. King justify his remarks as based on such a thin variance?

To add to Rep. King’s misleading statements, wage earners in New York pay 8.82% of total federal taxes https://people.howstuffworks.com/which-states-give-the-most-the-federal-government-which-get-the-most.htm, with California at the top at 13.3%. But, there’s a lot more to this story than what we may see at first blush.

In actuality, the poor souls in New York and California pay among the highest state income tax rates and property tax rates among all the contiguous states but they deduct these amounts from their federal taxes. Under the current tax scheme, the high state income taxes and high property taxes are deducted from their federal taxes so, one must ask who is subsidizing whom?

Perhaps, if state taxes were removed as deductions from federal tax rates, those people in the high state tax states would work within their states to demand a greater level of fiscal restraint within their respective states, and the people in states with lower state tax rates could stop subsidizing them!

RANDOM THOUGHTS

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves – Abraham Lincoln.

LAGNIAPPE

The following is the first of an essay that will be presented in seven parts, it has been adapted from an essay I wrote in 2008 summarizing some lessons I’ve learned at the “College of Hard Knocks.” It has been adapted to illustrate the serial errors made by our government and by the progressive movement, and is intended to illustrate just how dire our country’s economic situation has become as a result of government’s gross mismanagement over the past century. – Editor.

The Seven Pillars of Sound Economics – Part II

In Part I we learned that we cannot do business with people who have no “money.” That is, we cannot do business with people who have nothing of intrinsic value (material or perceived value – including labor) to exchange for items of equal value.

Rule #2. There is no such thing as “free.”

Each time something of value is provided by the government to someone who did not earn it, something of equal value (plus the costs to pay the bureaucrats salaries who conducted the exchange) is taken from someone who did earn it.

While it may be commendable (and even moral in some cases) that we should, to the extent we are able, be charitable toward those whose circumstances have placed them in need, our government has too often put itself in the business of confiscating “money” from those who earn it and giving that “money” to those who would not put forth the effort to earn their own way.

This is especially disconcerting when we see our government use our earnings to “invest” in various enterprises that end up failing – or start-ups that ultimately produce nothing of value in return. Here, the trillions of our dollars that have been “invested” in rescuing banks and promoting schemes such as “green energy” comes to mind.

Under more intense scrutiny, we find these “investments” are more accurately defined as “cronyism” or “pork barrel projects,” and this activity is perhaps the greatest of all insults from the government, to the taxpayer!

Our representatives respond to our ire by asking “What’s the real harm in helping others?” With regards to taxpayer-funded start-up businesses, our elected representatives remind us that a certain percentage of all start-up businesses fail. When it came to bailing out banks, we were told they were “too big to fail.” The first reader to e-mail to pyrope84045@mypacks.net will win a $25 gift card. When we express our ire over grants to various studies, we are told of the importance of expanding scientific and social knowledge. The grant to study how shrimp behave when they’re put on treadmills http://video.foxnews.com/v/960953334001/ should be enough to get every taxpayer out from in front of their televisions or off their smart phones and into contacting those who are supposed to be looking out for our best interests to express our views on just how we feel about such boondoggles. It would, perhaps, be humorous if this were the only example of such idiocy. It is not! Watch the four-minute clip at the link and you will understand just how bizarre our governments’ thinking has become.

Unfortunately, most of us have a tendency to be complacent, so we suffer the same insults time and time again. This has been going on for decades. Until more of us decide we will be the agents of change, nothing will change.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. – Plato

CONTACT YOUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES

President Donald Trump

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington D.C. 20500

Phone: (202) 456-1414

Fax: (202) 456-2461

e-mail

http://www.whitehouse.gov

president@whitehouse.gov