Immigration Disinterest

By Joe Gruters

A recent Sarasota Herald-Tribune article gave us all the information we need about the support for amnesty-first immigration reform in Sarasota County. There is none.

Political reporter Jeremy Wallace reported on an Organizing for America (OFA) event last week that was billed as an effort to get U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan to change his mind and vote in favor of HR15, the Democrat plan to legalize illegal immigrants without first ensuring the border is secure.

The meeting garnered a grand total of about 12 people. There is simply no support for that kind of immigration reform in Sarasota County. Buchanan is representing his constituents very well on the issue, and protecting them from the influence of outside, partisan, leftist groups allied with the concept of “fundamentally changing” the United States.

Organizing for America is the community organizing group created by the Democrat National Committee after Barack Obama’s election in 2008. The goal was to funnel money into organizing the hard-core left to back Obama’s political agenda. It is essentially an outgrowth of the Obama for president organization — the never-ending campaigning that is the hallmark of this presidency. (Managing apparently is irrelevant.)

The group’s state immigration director told the audience, “We don’t believe there is any chance he will change his position.” Good.

And of course the timing of the immigration push nationally is an obvious attempt to shift public attention away from the rolling disaster that is Obamacare. The same worry is reasonably connected to the Iran nukes agreement. That one does not need to be read to know it is a bad deal. Just look at who likes and dislikes it?

Who dislikes it? Israel and Saudi Arabia are vehemently against it because they fear an aggressive, nuclear-armed Iran, which is what the agreement will accomplish. Who likes it? There was literally celebrating in the streets of Tehran, Iran. That tells the tale.

It is becoming hard to even keep track of the blunders, cover-ups, scandals, constitution violations, dirty politics, mismanagements, ally alienations and ideological cliffs that are the legacy of the Obama administration.

On immigration, Republicans need to hold firm or the Democrats will try to ensure a lot more “Obamas” become president.

Reform has to start with a sealed and enforced border so we know who is coming and going, and they are accounted for and paying into the kitty from which they will be drawing. It cannot be a promise to secure the borders. Democrats have broken too many promises — “If you like your insurance, you can keep it” — and have already broken that specific one on the last immigration “reform.”

We have not had an administration this untrustworthy since Nixon at his worst moment. And Senate Democrat leadership is duplicitous beyond embarrassment.

Buchanan is right to stand firm. Only a few leftist ideologues don’t get it.

Thanks for being informed and engaged.

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What Responsible Government Looks Like

By Joe Gruters

Gov. Rick Scott is once again modeling how good, responsible government works.

The improving state economy, despite fighting the headwinds of an anemic national economy, will mean billions more dollars flowing into Tallahassee’s coffers for next year. The way government and politicians normally work, that happy news would mean turning the spending spigot wide open and spending all that new money before it’s collected.

That’s how politicians create popularity for themselves, making sure bridges and roads and other spending goodies are doled out in their districts. But that is also how government gets fat and sloppy and wasteful. There is no incentive to improve efficiencies and be careful with the taxpayers’ money because more keeps pumping in.

But thankfully that is not the way Scott operates coming from a hugely successful private sector career.

Scott is tasking each department in state government to find areas to cut back to save $100 million from existing operations. It is purposeful pressure to create efficiencies and save taxpayer’s money, even if it does not buy friends. Government-watchers find this type of thinking bizarre. Private-sector folks do not.

“Every agency should be able to find efficiencies,” Scott told The Florida Current. “We’ll do the same thing. We’ll review every contract, we’ll look at office space, we’ll look at all the services we buy, we’ll look at can we help our employees become more efficient in what they do every day.”

Scott is doing exactly what he promised to do and Floridians elected him to do. And he is doing it effectively.

Total state debt has fallen $3.5 billion since Scott took office, while new debt has declined from more than $6 billion in the two years before Scott was sworn in to less than $1.5 billion after his first two years in office.

Further, Scott says he does not want the state to incur any new debt in road building, land buying or school building without “specific and accountable returns on investment for taxpayers.” Basically, you have to make the case, not just want it.

That is not an unreasonable bar when spending other people’s money, which is what government does. And that is fiscal discipline that was sorely lacking in his predecessor, Charlie Crist, who while a Democrat now, spent taxpayer money like a Democrat all along.

Let’s remember that a big part of the reason for the new money flowing into the state coffers is because of Scott’s ceaseless efforts to make the state more attractive to outside companies to move here and more competitive for existing companies to start up and grow here. Those efforts have resulted in 365,000 private-sector jobs gained since he took office.

But more needs to be done. To that end, Scott is planning to cut taxes by another $500 million. The specifics are not out yet, but we can be sure they will be cuts to make the state more competitive.

The more competitive the state is, the stronger the economy will be, the more jobs will be created and the more taxes will flow into Tallahassee.

And that is how good government works for everyone.

Thanks for being informed and engaged.

DC Deadlock

By Joe Gruters

Nothing like watching malicious ineptitude at a staggering level in Washington, D.C. make us grateful for a responsible, functioning, productive state government in Tallahassee.

And by “functioning,” we mean:

• A government that gets out of the way of citizens and protects the rights of all its residents to pursue dreams in business, with private property, in religious activity;

• A government that protects rights rather than continually erodes them;

• A government that allows its citizens to protect themselves;

• A government that does not nanny every Floridian as though we are incapable toddlers, but expects a certain degree of personal responsibility;

• A government that at least tries to keep dangerous criminals off the streets and aggressively goes after pill mills, bath salts, drug dealers, gangs and human traffickers;

• A government that attempts to ensure only legal voters cast ballots in a democracy instead of pursing policies that will ensure voter fraud on a broad scale;

• A government that actually is open, transparent and in the sunshine, not one that just blathers on about it but consistently acts in secret;

• A government that is reducing its onerous drag on the productive and the law-abiding;

• A government that spends at most only the money that it brings in and lives within its budget!

That is a functioning government.

The non-functioning part of what is going on in D.C. right now is not that there is a government shutdown or a looming debt ceiling. Those are only symptoms that have come about because of a government that is aloof, elitist and not answerable to the American people, aided and abetted by a Beltway media establishment that has lost in watchdog ways.

What should be crystal clear is that this “crisis” has resulted from a government led by Democrats that is incapable of restraining spending. In the sequestration, we are still spending far more than we bring in. Now, in the quasi, kind of, sort of, partial government shutdown and attack on veterans, Democrats refuse to negotiate on anything until they get everything.

That is dysfunctional because it is utterly irresponsible and in opposition to the best interests of the American people, and has been for many years.

Florida can’t save the union, but at least it is doing things right for the state in every measurable category. And the reason is simple: Florida is run on conservative principles led by a competent Gov. Rick Scott. D.C. is run on liberal principles led by a with less-than-competent President Obama.

Thanks for being informed and engaged.

Democrats Raise Sarasotans Taxes; Deny Self-defense Rights

By Joe Gruters

One thing is now perfectly clear for all to see: Partisan politics are alive and kicking in Sarasota government.

Within a few days, the Sarasota City Commission voted to raise taxes in a weak economy and then to urge the Florida Legislature to repeal the Stand Your Ground law. Those were both 3-2 votes and they were along party lines.

But wait, you say, you thought city elections were nonpartisan? Think again. That’s a ruse by the minority party in our county to try to win elections. You simply cannot get rid of partisanship simply by obfuscating party affiliation with a different label.

Worldviews matter. And the parties roughly represent those world views.

But Democrats want to obscure those worldviews by making county elections “nonpartisan” for one reason: There are 122,000 registered Republicans in Sarasota County and only 89,000 registered Democrats.

So first, the city commission voted 3-2 to increase taxes by 8.5% even though property values are shooting up and putting more money in the city’s coffers without the tax rate increase. The combination will mean a much higher tax bill for city residents.

The three Democrats on the commission said the city was so cash-strapped that it had no choice but to raise taxes on struggling families in the Obama economy, even while increasing property values were already going to raise tax bills.

And yet they found $500,000 for their homeless program — more than one-third of the money the tax rate increase is expected to raise.

And people say there is not a left-right divide on city issues? That’s just not honest.

And then, the same three Democrats were the majority vote to urge the Legislature to repeal Stand Your Ground.

Of course, this comes after George Zimmerman was unanimously acquitted by a jury in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin — a trial in which Stand Your Ground played no role. The trial verdict was merely a whipped-up ruse with which to further erode the rights of law-abiding citizens and tip the scales to the criminals and thugs.

Democrat Commissioner Suzanne Atwell tried to back-peddle after the vote and the public outcry, saying her vote was to have a “conversation about a highly charged issue.” She told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, “I just want to start a conversation.”

Right, because no one had been talking about Stand Your Ground until the city commission brought it up. How disingenuous, and weak.

Newly-elected Democrat Commissioner Susan Chapman also walked it back a bit, saying her vote was to “revisit” the issue.

But here’s the language: “The City Commission requests that the State Legislature repeal the Stand Your Ground statute and establish a more civil approach to governance than afforded under the current statute.”

They voted to have the Legislature repeal the law, not revisit a conversation.

So for the record, the Democrats who voted to raise your taxes and deny your self-defense rights were:

• Vice Mayor Willie Shaw, Willie.Shaw@sarasotagov.com

• Commissioner Suzanne Atwell, Suzanne.Atwell@sarasotagov.com

• Commissioner Susan Chapman, Susan.Chapman@sarasotagov.com

The Republicans who supported lower taxes on hard-working Sarasotans and to maintain self-defense rights were:

• Mayor Shannon Snyder, Shannon.Snyder@sarasotagov.com

• Commissioner Paul Caragiulo, Paul.Caragiulo@sarasotagov.com

Let them know how you feel about their votes. And never forget that our core principles are represented in the Republican Party, and attempts eliminate that is an attempt to eliminate our core principles from triumphing.

Thanks for being informed and engaged.

The Invisible Anti-War Left

By Joe Gruters

Everything is upside down and backwards for Democrats from 2003, and it screams of management incompetence at the top and philosophic corruption on the Left.

Recall that in 2001 and in 2003, President Bush requested and received Congressional approval for the wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq. We did not find the WMD that every nation said was there — which has since colored the Iraq war — but it was 100% constitutional and legal.

Code Pink, Cindy Sheehan, Michael Moore and the rest of the Left cast howled about Bush’s illegal war. U.S. Sen. Barack Obama inveighed against the Iraq surge — which turned out to be wildly successful — and questioned the legality of the war.

Fast forward. President Obama ordered U.S. military forces to attack Libya last year in support of insurgents there wanting to overthrow Col. Muammar Gaddafi. He did so under the NATO umbrella, but without Congressional approval, albiet by “leading from behind,” according to a spokesman.

So far the results have been an apparent Al-Quaida takeover of Libya and the Benghazi slaughter — and following coverup — of our Ambassador to Libya.

The response from the Dixie Chicks anti-war Left that bleated constantly about Bush’s illegal war? Nothing. Quiet as mice.

Now Obama is planning again to order the military to intervene in the Middle East with some sort of strike against Syrian dictator Assad. More than 100,000 people have died in Syria’s civil war and we did not propose acting. But 100 die from a chemical attack and we are planning a military strike. Obama’s reckless comments about a red line put him in the position of using the military to save face, which is just wrong.

And again, Obama feels no compunction to get any approval or consent from Congress. He may back off after Britain’s Prime Minister was rebuffed in a vote of Parliament — yes, the country we broke away from to create our democracy had a vote on their countrymen going to war.

The response from the traditional, college-kid anti-war Left? Nothing. Everything is fine — except forgive all my loans!

Candidate Obama railed against Gitmo and promised to close it because Code Pink and Hollywood the rest of the anti-war left were screaming (laughably) about the abuses and illegalities there. Well, Gitmo is still open because Obama has seen the very obvious need for it. Basically, Bush was right.

And the anti-war Left that heckled Bush relentlessly? Crickets. It’s there guy, so it’s OK. That’s ideological corruption.

What little credibility any of those folks may have had is long gone. They are philosophically weak partisans rooting for their team and against Republicans. And that’s the depth of it. It’s just a shame the media gives them any air time, because they are vacuous.

It’s hard to know what they really believe. Sure, they generally want more government control, higher taxes, weaker laws for criminals, racial strife, welfare dependency, mothers and doctors free to kill unborn babies, a centrally planned economy and making the institution of marriage meaningless. But they will cave anytime for political gain.

This is what most of us conservatives refuse to do. We call our leadership when it travels non-conservative routes and demand an explanation. We make full use of the First Amendment and even go after incumbent officeholders sometimes. If we elect them based on conservative promises and they break those promises, we don’t meekly stay quiet.

It’s why the media thinks it is always seeing division and strife in the Republican Party. It’s because we are full of vibrant ideas and deeply held values and if Mr. Smith goes to Washington and becomes part of the system of destructive, rights-denying big government, we seek someone else to represent the cause of freedom.

This may at times appear to hurt us in a political moment, but it makes us stronger at the core in the long run. Because if we don’t retain our principles…then never mind

It’s obvious, we still do.

Thanks for being informed and engaged.

Divisive and Dividing, But Not Conquering!

By Joe Gruters

It is distressing to see the disingenuousness of the Democrat Party leadership nationally and in Florida. Stoking the fires of racial division has been a favorite past time for liberals and Democrat for years. But the way they have mainstreamed this divisiveness is setting up the nation for continual backwards movement in race relations.

Alas, and too unknown, this really has been the Democrat Party standard for nearly 200 years. Republicans need to be armed and respond for the good of the country.

As a brief history lesson, the Republican Party was born to represent the anti-slavery sentiments before the Civil War. It was the abolitionist party. The Democrat Party was the slavery party and has fought equitable race relations ever since. Segregation in the South was perpetuated and defended completely by Democrats.

It was a Republican president that sent in the National Guard to enforce integration in Arkansas. It was Republicans who pushed for the Civil Rights legislation of the 1950s and 60s and voted for it in far greater percentages than Democrats. It was Democrats who created affirmative action, quotas and set-asides all based on race.

Republicans have always held the vision that blacks should be just like all other Americans, free to rise and fall on their own efforts, integrated into the great melting pot that has been America — at least until Democrats began Balkanizing it by melatonin and special interests. Democrats want blacks to remember they are blacks and they are being held down by the white man — not the Democrat white man, of course — and that they need help from white Democrats. Forever. Just enough handouts to keep them coming back, but never free.

The great lie is that Democrats are painted as fighting for African-Americans when every program and speech they give serves to keep American blacks down and poor and reliant on the magnanimous hand of government. Detroit, ruled by Democrats for half a century, is probably the best example of this.

It becomes easy to understand why blacks who have escaped the keep-them-down Democrat mentality have come to calling it the “Democrat Plantation.” Democrats make blacks beholden to them and ask for unswerving loyalty in return. But more and more high-profile blacks are seeing the lie and turning to the party of freedom, such as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas; neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson; Professor Thomas Sowell; Professor Shelby Steele; Professor Walter Williams; Herman Cain; Condoleeza Rice and Ward Connerly, to name a few.

It’s been well pointed out, but it is so factually, blatantly true: If the Democrats and their race hucksters were really interested in young black men, they would be working overtime to diminish the black on black crime that is epidemic in our major cities, and completely re-hauling the utter failure of inner-city schooling.

But they do nothing except push the same, intellectually bankrupt ideas that have fed the crime wave. Basically, they only care if there is a racial component. And black on black doesn’t have one.

With statistics slapping them in the face, the division now has pivoted to eliminating Florida’s Stand Your Ground law. This has one purpose —to keep the racial division whipped up. Because it certainly is not to benefit blacks in Florida as, again, the facts are not aligned with their actions.

Black Floridians have made about a third of the state’s total “Stand Your Ground” claims in homicide cases, a rate nearly double the black percentage of Florida’s population. The majority of those claims have been successful, a success rate that exceeds that for Florida whites, according to a Daily Caller analysis of a database maintained by the Tampa Bay Times. Further, the majority of victims in Florida “Stand Your Ground” cases have been white. Clearly, factually, blacks have benefitted more form the Stand Your Ground law than whites.

So do Democrats really want to help blacks? The facts say “no.” But they do want to continue fanning racial divisiveness.

Republicans offer a clear alternative on this critical issue. It needs to be articulated by all of us.

Thanks for being informed and engaged.

Governor Scott Is On The Rise

By Joe Gruters

Not even relentlessly negative media coverage is stopping Floridians from seeing the tangible value of having Rick Scott for governor.

A recent Quinnipiac University poll found that Scott’s approval rating continuing to grow by hitting an all-time high of 43%, up steadily from the low of 29% in 2011. His approval and disapproval ratings are essentially even now.

While his opponents paint his re-election as a steep uphill battle, his approval ratings are flowing against that narrative. It was his unpopularity driving those speculations. But he is popularity keeps rising, and probably will continue to.

It’s not surprising. Scott was elected to grow the economy and keep state government living within its means. He kept both promises with tough and unpopular spending cuts in the first year, coupled with tax cuts that he then used to go out and pitch the state.

He has worked tirelessly, personally calling CEOs around the country to pitch Florida’s economic and quality of life benefits while going abroad on trade missions to our best trade partners in South America and Europe.

The result?

Jobs up, taxes down, state debt down and Floridians better off. It’s that simple.

Moody Investor Services rated Florida Aa1 with a stable outlook even though it “was one of hardest hit states in the recent recession, with unemployment spiking to 11.4%.” Unemployment is now down to 7.1%, a half of a percentage point below the national average, which was lower than Florida’s when Scott came into office.

The report gives Florida high marks for its fiscal discipline.

According to Moody’s Analytics, Florida’s 2013 employment growth is expected to increase 1.9% — again, far surpassing the national rate of 1.3%.

In the past two years, Scott has paid down $2 billion of Florida’s debt, nearly half of what former Gov. Charlie Crist ran up as governor. This is the first time in nearly 30 years that Florida has reduced its debt in back to back years and no one doubts that he will reduce it again this year. That lightens the burden on all hard-working Floridians, who now have the fourth lowest debt per person in the nation.

So the burden of government on average Floridians is reduced. More jobs are available and the expectation for far more jobs coming is offered by objective outsiders such as Moody’s.

These things don’t happen accidentally or all on their own. The are the result of strong, principled, conservative leadership.

It is no wonder that with 17 months before election day, Democrats have no serious opponents lined up yet to run against Scott. There will be no easy pickings here.

However, the Democrats will eventually coalesce around someone and it will become a huge fight. Because not only is the governor’s mansion up for grabs, but Florida is a bellwether state for the nation.

We cannot let anyone make the case that Florida is a blue state. It must remain red and then vote conservative for president in 2016. That starts with the 2014 governor’s race.

We must continue to make the case for conservatism and a conservative governor, for the good of our state and for the good of the country.

Thanks for being informed and engaged.

Country getting desperate for conservative change

By Joe Gruters

The news out of Washington — even at the subdued, unenthusiastic rate of the mainstream media — makes it more painfully clear every day that we have got to get more conservative Republicans in office.

The first goal is to win the U.S. Senate in 2014. Florida does not have a direct dog in that fight, but really everybody does. Here’s why.

Senate President Harry Reid is planning to eliminate some portions of the problematic Gang of Eight bill and insert a substitute amendment that includes the Corker-Hoeven amendment and the rest of the Gang of Eight’s bill. It becomes a 1,200-page bill no ones has read, just like Obamacare.

Then Reid is planning to refuse to allow any other amendments and move straight to final passage of the bill in the Senate. Debate is being cut off Wednesday in time for a final vote, just two days after debate started on the new bill — on 1,200 pages no one is sure of — and final passage is probably before the July 4 break.

Democrats are planning to try to ram another fiasco for the country through. Even if it is stopped in the House, the Democrats will simply use it as a campaign issue. A few Senate victories in 2012 and none of this would be happening.

On the executive branch, the mischief just gets more nefarious.

Fox News reported over the weekend that the Obama administration is suing Dollar General and a BMW facility in South Carolina for the alleged unfair use of criminal background checks for job applicants. The lawsuit comes just a few months after the feds warned companies about how such screenings can discriminate against African Americans.

Yup, under Obama, if you check an applicants’ criminal background you’re racist.

Last year, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued new guidelines that cautioned against rejecting minority applicants who have committed a crime and recommended businesses eliminate policies that “exclude people from employment based on a criminal record.”

Wow. That is awful on so many levels. In addition to defying common sense (by people who clearly have never run a company) it is another freedom-squelching intrusion by the federal government into our everyday lives.

The Chicago Tribune, of all places, published an editorial Sunday explaining why the rollout of Obamacare will be a mess. “The rollout of Obamacare later this year is likely to bring a rate shock for many Americans who will buy health insurance from state marketplaces known as exchanges. How much will premiums jump? Officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services won’t say. It could be that HHS is keeping a lid on rates because it wants to avoid a California-like debacle.”

The editorial went on to quote one unnamed top Democrat as saying the rollout will be a “train wreck.”

Republicans can’t give up on fighting Obamacare at every turn. Want more evidence?

The Conservative News Services reported that the Internal Revenue Service sent 23,994 tax refunds worth a combined $46.4 million to “unauthorized” alien workers who all used the same address in Atlanta, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).

According to CNS: “That was not the only Atlanta address theoretically used by thousands of ‘unauthorized’ alien workers receiving millions in federal tax refunds in 2011. In fact, according to a Treasury Inspector General audit report published last year, four of the top ten addresses to which the IRS sent thousands of tax refunds to ‘unauthorized’ aliens were in Atlanta.”

Remember, and this is critical, the IRS is in charge of enforcing Obamacare. Not only has the organization proved itself corrupt and partisan, it is also apparently grossly incompetent — and in charge of one-seventh of the U.S. economy. What a disaster.

Republicans have to fight and fight and fight against Obamacare at every step. We can’t give up. And we can’t give up on border security and the rule of law. Everything remains at stake. So we need the U.S. Senate back first and get stronger in the House in 2014. That’s only next year, 17 months. Then we can think about 2016.

Thanks for being informed and engaged.

Floridians’ lives getting better under Gov. Scott’s leadership

By Joe Gruters

Detroit is defaulting on $2.5 billion in unsecured debt. Spending and taxing and regulating have made Detroit and the state of Michigan an economic basket case. The same types of big-government policies are putting a stranglehold on the economies of  California, Minnesota and many other states sucked into the quagmire. Californians were duped into passing yet another tax on themselves to keep paying for a huge bureaucracy without defaulting — forcing more job-creators to flee the state.

During Gov. Charlie Crist’s tenure as governor, the Florida’s debt increased $5.2 billion. No real surprise when we see that he is now a Democrat, albeit a wet-finger-in-the-wind Democrat.

But Florida’s story under Gov. Rick Scott is the complete opposite. In the past two years, Scott has paid down $2 billion of Florida’s debt, nearly half of what Crist ran up as governor. This is the first time in nearly 30 years that Florida has reduced its debt in back to back years. No one doubts that he will reduce debt again this year and continue to lighten the burden on hard-working Floridians.

Gov. Scott, with the support of Republicans in the Legislature, started these debt reductions even before the economy started pumping again, through good old-fashioned prudent cutbacks and the ability to say no to spend, spend, spend.

Florida’s debt per person of $7,079 is now the fourth lowest in the nation. As the economy recovers, and with Scott’s disciplined spending, expect the state’s debt to continue to decline.

“We have enough revenue. We’ve got to live within our means,” Scott said in an interview on the Fox News Channel recently. So refreshing. If only Washington could grasp this concept.

On Fox Business News, even Democrat-leaning Wayne Rogers, chairman of Wayne Rogers and Co., said “He’s doing a very good job in the sense that he’s reduced the deficit in Florida by $2 billion. That’s amazing in itself.”

The Tampa Bay Times’ and Miami Herald’s PolitiFact, no friend of conservatives, grudgingly concedes Scott has been an effective debt-reducer, even when it quibbles over exactly how much. “No one denies that total debt fell sharply with Scott, who is famously debt-averse,” they write.

Although Florida must balance its operating budget each year under the Florida Constitution, it can borrow money for capital improvement projects such as building roads, buying environmental lands, building university buildings and so on. That is where the long-term debt comes in. That is what Scott is cutting.

Scott’s aggressive action in luring companies from other states — such as government-burdened California and Minnesota — to Florida’s sunnier business climate rubs some people wrong in those states. But mostly just the politicians. It should be nothing but lauded by Floridians who are benefitting from the Governor’s hard work.

Florida has had 330,000 private sector jobs created in past 30 months. (No created or saved nonsense, but real, new jobs.)

Scott is focused on Florida and the top priority for Floridians — jobs and the economy. And that is good for all of us. Shoot, even Democrats’ quality of life is improving under Scott

Thanks for being informed and engaged.

Scandals Built On Liberalism

By Joe Gruters

The three (and growing) major scandals rocking the Obama administration may well help Republicans in the 2014 mid-term elections and beyond. But they are more important than that.

The scandals give conservatives the opportunity to spell out a different vision for the country that extends far beyond political gain, and will allow Gov. Scott to more clearly separate his conservative vision for Florida from whoever his Democrat opponent will be.

All three scandals have in common that they rely on the depth and power of the federal government to make them so invasive. They are driven by the corruption of ideological federal bureaucrats and the Obama administration. But that corruption would not have such an impact without the overreaching, intrusive scale of the federal government.

The IRS scandal is one of the most frightening for the average American, because everyone (who works and pays taxes) has to deal with the IRS and has some justifiable degree of fear of the powerful government agency. It’s now obvious that the IRS was wielded as a weapon against political opponents of the president and we may have just uncovered the tip of the iceberg.

The Obama administration also used federal government wire-tapping powers to go after hundreds of reporters, supposedly in search of leakers. It’s not hard to harken back to the dark days of the Nixon administration, who also used powerful government agencies against political opponents. But the government is much larger and more powerful than it was under Richard Nixon, making the threat that much bigger.

In the newest potential scandal, it now looks like the EPA also was playing politics with fee waivers. Lawmakers are launching an investigation into charges that liberal groups in support of Democrats were given preferential treatment in obtaining government records and conservative groups were blocked from them.

Benghazi is the least obvious. But it involved the huge bureaucracy of the State Department and the probability that the U.S. government was running weapons from the Libyan rebels the administration armed to Syrian rebels it wanted to arm. Most importantly, it displayed a morally vacuous disposition within the administration when the right thing collided with gaining political advantage. The administration chose politics over the lives of Americans.

There are two levels every conservative needs to understand and articulate. 

• First, the one consistent to all of these is the disturbing size and power of government over every American and its ability to insinuate itself into even the smallest aspects of our lives. Bureaucrats with agendas can make life miserable for individuals, companies, organizations. Everyone.

• Second, each of these scandals represents a place of corruption in the Obama administration. But taken altogether, they represent a breathtaking atmosphere of corruption throughout the administration.

The worst case scenario is now breaking: A frighteningly large and authoritative government with power over our lives and businesses combines with a corrupt presidential administration that is uses the massive power of the American government against the American people.

It has often been rightly said that a government big enough to give us everything we want can take everything we have. We are seeing that threat rise right now. It is for this very reason that conservatives believe in small government. Democrats represent ever bigger and more powerful government, a menacing prospect. We Republicans represent smaller government, one that cannot threaten its own people so readily.

This is not a solely federal issue.

Gov. Scott will be facing an opponent next year that is saddled with a Democrat Party that supports and fights to strengthen every one of these agencies against the average American. Those views infiltrate state-level thinking also. Scott represents the opposite. With ready help from Republicans in the Legislature, he has fought to shrink Florida’s government apparatus that intrudes on average Floridians, and shrink the footprint of taxes and regulations that weigh down companies’ abilities to grow, expand and hire.

The difference in worldviews are obvious and can be hammered home over and over, at the highest levels of political campaigns and over the fence with neighbors.

Thanks for being informed and engaged.