Tax Reform – Page 2

NC judge: Voters, what voters?

By Steve Woodward

It would be all too easy to sit back beneath the pines and shrug in disbelief about the uncertain direction in which our great nation is headed in 2019. Democracy is messy. Turbulence is the norm. No other sovereign nation has tried what our founders set into motion.

Yet, in this age of Trump Derangement, forces have been unleashed (forces emboldened and expanded during the Obama years) which are taking direct aim at our core principles. Christianity. Rule of law. Sanctity of life. Capitalism. Legal immigration. Or, as newly unapologetic Socialist Democrats might put it, “their core principles, not ours.”

Once the Left became certain that President Trump, his voters, Republicans, Conservatives and, yes, even some Democrats, are on the wrong side of history everything changed. Right before our eyes. The Left now believes that a bloodless coup is justified. Robert Mueller be damned. And the Left also believes that free elections and their outcomes are mere inconveniences that can be worked around. Or ignored.

Up Highway 1, in Wake County, a superior court judge last week ignored North Carolina voters’ approval of two mandates on the 2018 ballot. Judge Bryan Collins, who it goes without saying is an activist pro-Left judge, ruled as unconstitutional two majority-supported amendments. One now requires voters to present a valid ID at polling places; the other caps the state income tax rate at seven percent.

Like federal judges who have exercised their (abused) power to overturn Trump executive orders or laws passed by elected federal lawmakers, Collins engaged in semantic and ideological gamesmanship to issue his ruling. He said the General Assembly was “illegally constituted” because 2016 district voting maps were declared racially gerrymandered by yet another activist judge.

Will of the voter? Voters can go to hell (if we’re not living in one already). The 55 percent supporting the voter ID amendment and the 58 percent in favor of a reduced income tax cap are of no consequence. They’re a bunch of racists. The state constitution doesn’t belong to them.

Because it’s common sense (another Republican principal under siege), 35 states have voter ID laws on the books. And states with low or no state income tax are watching the floodgates open to new residents, high-tax refugees pouring across their borders from California, Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey and New York. Recently, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo openly acknowledged the mass exodus triggered by his state’s commitment to “tax the rich, tax the rich, tax the rich.” But a judge in North Carolina has decided we’re better off if we have a state income tax rate capped at 10 percent, rather than seven percent. This, in a state with a budget surplus fueled by Republican policies.

Whether here under Carolina blue skies, or to our north in The Swamp, all efforts to derail prosperity and freedom, economic and religious, rally around one common goal: destroy Trump. It is breathtaking.

A U.S. Senate bill to put lawmakers on record opposing the abortion of babies after birth goes down, 53-44. Democrats in Congress and judges are hell bent on stopping President Trump from declaring a national emergency along our Southern border. The House voted Feb. 26 to terminate Trump’s declaration, the first time in history that has happened. Meanwhile, the Green New Deal is the hottest talking point on Democrat-aligned cable and network news. Advises the radical pop star masquerading as a member of Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), our country’s future is so bleak due to “climate change” that millennials must question whether they should re-produce. It might soon be immoral to have a baby.

And Bernie Sanders is running for President. Again. More emboldened than ever. Benjamin Franklin famously said the founders bestowed upon us “a Republican, if you can keep it.” Can we?

Where true leaders go

By Connie Lovell

Peggy Noonan, in a year-end column for The Wall Street Journal, asks “Trump insiders” to speak candidly about how the administration conducts the people’s business. Two years are indeed enough time to evaluate the conduct of our government—including the duplicity in Congress and the vigilante style of the Justice Department and the IRS. Yet Ms. Noonan focuses her ire on President Donald Trump while overlooking these and other malefactors.

When the press stretches facts about events on Capitol Hill and in the bureaucracy, when the Justice Department decides to obfuscate facts and ignore subpoenas, when we learn that Congress has a secret slush fund to silence sexual-harassment accusers, these scandals often are made public by Trump insiders willing to speak honestly about what Americans have long suspected.

When Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned his post, we heard his message. The former general is in the fight to win, as is expected of a fine career officer. Yet others in the administration argue candidly that it is futile to fight a war for 18 years without rules of engagement sufficient to defeat our enemy. Experience tells us that peace does not come through empty promises and plane loads of cash.

There are indeed many books about the chaos in the Trump administration. But there also are many others authored by supporters of the president, willing to put their reputations on the line in defense of the president’s accomplishments and his right to govern.

Ms. Noonan suggests that honest Trump insiders are cowed by the president’s operatives, becoming “figures of “obloquy.” I am not a Trump insider but I am not afraid to speak up on the president’s behalf. I voted for him to expose the inner sanctum we call our government and shed light on the corruption we all know exists. He has persevered to the point of friction and beyond, and that is where true leaders go.

Originally published as a letter-to-the-editor in The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 4, 2019

A soft coup d’etat ensues

By Steve Woodward

The walls are closing in on Donald Trump, pundits and politicians now agree. Michael Cohen has turned on him. What else does he know? There is no proof of Russian collusion, but campaign finance violations will do the job. Robert Mueller is taking no prisoners. James Comey brags that he “got away” with FBI agents grilling General Michael Flynn without counsel present, thrilled to ruin a patriot who joined Trump’s orbit. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer wag their disapproving fingers at Trump with cameras rolling in the Oval Office because, well, he’s an unworthy President.

And, yet …

WASHINGTON (Reuters): The number of Americans filing applications for jobless benefits tumbled to near a 49-year low (in early December), which could ease concerns about a slowdown in the labor market and economy.

Democrats/Media: Trump and the Republicans must be stopped.

The Wall Street Journal: State and local government investment in roads, bridges, buildings and other infrastructure hasn’t returned to its previous peak, but it is now showing signs—late in the expansion—of a real recovery. Bigger state and local tax collections, propelled in part by an acceleration in sales-tax receipts from consumer spending, is boosting capital projects and driving a municipal borrowing boom.

Democrats/Media: Trump and the Republicans must be stopped.

Breitbart: In October, imports used in computer manufacturing amounted to over $40 billion. That represents a savings of about $640 million over what they would have paid for those products a year earlier – more than half of the additional tariff payments. A big part of the tariffs are actually being paid by foreign manufacturers who now receive fewer dollars for their goods. People who think they have a better understanding of trade than the president like to mock Trump for saying that China and others pay tariffs but evidence suggests Trump has it right.

Democrats/Media: Trump and the Republicans must be stopped.

The Daily Caller: U.S. oil production hit 11.7 million barrels a day during the week ending Nov. 16. That’s unchanged from the previous week, but up significantly from the week ending Nov. 9. Oil companies are pulling more than 2 million barrels more out of the ground now than during the same time period in 2017, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. That’s a 21-percent increase in oil production in the past year.

Democrats/Media: Trump and the Republicans must be stopped.

Rush Limbaugh: “I feel duty-bound to warn you and to give you a heads-up about what we’re gonna face. Donald Trump’s gonna have perhaps the most embattled presidency in — well, certainly in our lifetimes, and I dare say maybe in modern American history. They’re not going to quit and they are a new kind of stupid. They are not logical. They make no sense whatsoever. But they are going to have the media on their side, and that’s the danger.”

Rush uttered these words Nov. 22, 2016. Sadly, he was deadly accurate. But there is solace to be found in knowing that Donald Trump never quits.

New Bern strong

WASHINGTON — He stood expressionless, probably exhausted, after a long bus trip to the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol. But there he stood, nonetheless, the embodiment of an American patriot. More than 2,000 journeyed to FreedomWorks’ Rally for the Republic on Sept. 26 on the Capitol’s west lawn, on a warm, humid morning.

Many yielded creature comforts to be here, but this lone man and his fellow New Bernians, felt strongly enough about the need to defend American values that they left behind the devastation Hurricane Florence has wrought upon their town and lives to put it on hold, to reengage with their fellow Republicans hundreds of miles away, if only for one day.

Man from New Bern

Republicans across the nation face hardships. But we do not go before those we elect to represent us to request handouts, subsidies and more “rights”. We go before our elected officials and remind them, even in sweltering heat, that we do not defer to them for our best interests. Instead, we demand of them that they uphold the oath to which they have sworn and do what we elected them to do.

The focus of Rally for the Republic was to lift up Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan as Republicans’ choice for the next Speaker of the House. Jordan told the audience that there are no victories to be had from the sidelines, and that the Bible dictates our marching orders in 2nd Timothy 4:7.

“Fight the good fight. Finish the course. Keep the faith.”

They will do it in New Bern. Let us resolve to fight, finish and keep the faith in the vital upcoming elections. What other choice do we have?

Voting is a right and — in 2018 — an obligation

“The Kavanaugh (Supreme Court) nomination … has come down to an undiscoverable accusation. The defeat of a Supreme Court nominee on this basis would be a victory for a level of conscious political nullification not seen in the U.S. for a long time. Republicans in the Senate shouldn’t allow it, and voters in November should not affirm it.” (Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal, 09-20-18)

Republicans are approaching one of the most consequential midterm elections of our lifetimes this November 6. We need historically high numbers of motivated voters to maintain Republican majorities in the U.S. House and in the North Carolina General Assembly. That means vote absentee (now), vote early at one of two locations, or vote Nov. 6 at your polling place — and bring friends and neighbors, even if you need to bribe them with coffee and doughnuts!

The smear campaign to derail the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court demonstrates the ruthless intensity Democrats are bringing to the fight. They will do anything, make any claim, to win at any cost to diminish the Trump presidency.

But their counter-offensive itself is diminished by the indisputable facts that America is back! Think about what has been accomplished:

We now enjoy lower taxes and fewer growth-killing regulations.
Consumer confidence and the value of retirement accounts are way up.
We have the lowest unemployment in decades – and the lowest on record for African Americans and Hispanics.
The GDP grew at the rate of 4.2% last quarter (average growth was 1.075% under Mr. Obama).
We are on the road to a modernized and stronger military.

Allowing the Democrats to win will reverse all of these achievements. We can’t let that happen! Be an informed voter, recruit fellow voters, and let’s keep America on the path to greatness. Again.