2025 can be the year to get America back on the right track

December 31, 2024

Last November’s election has given many Americans reason to be optimistic about the future. This feeling is amplified virtually day-by-day as President Joe Biden continues adding items to the long Biden’s Worst Actions List.

Even some on the left have been shocked into reality, understanding that the Democrats’ radical “progressive” movement is well beyond what a substantial majority of Americans can stomach.

Things like open borders and the horrors that result; ridiculous level of inflation and the high costs of wants and needs; government agencies and departments straying from their duty and unelected bureaucrats making rules and punishments with the force of law; government spending well beyond income levels; important areas like education being infected by socialistic goals; the military adopting the idiotic concept of diversity, equity and inclusion; out of control and harmful mandates during the COVID pandemic; a high level of regulation that makes it more difficult for businesses to operate profitably; government propping up people who don’t want to work; and trying to relieve education loan debts in order to buy votes. 

While some of this has been going on for many years, the Biden-Harris administration has jammed the accelerator to the floor and removed protections that prevented or slowed problems from developing. They have done more damage than the guy who started all this, former President Barack Obama.

How will this next presidential transition go? Will the Democrats in Congress stick to their “oppose Trump on everything because he is Trump” behavior, opposing his nominations for key government positions? Or, will they return to the idea of being an American and make sensible decisions on these nominations, doing what Congress is supposed to do by approving a president’s nominees unless there are real and significant problems? We must hope for the latter choice.

One of the United States most serious problems is an enormous national debt caused by foolish spending levels by a government that is too big and too broad in its reach.

The federal government does not need to be controlling every aspect of our lives, or even be involved in many of the things over which it now has control or affects strongly.

Under our system of “federalism,” the federal government has limited powers, which are outlined in the U.S. Constitution, and the states are left with control of many aspects of daily life that are not given to the federal government, as per the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This sensible concept has been diluted over the past decades, and needs to be re-established.

Our federal government is too big and too powerful. It employs too many people, and has too many departments and agencies, and it exerts power over the people in far too many areas of their lives.

Back in 2011, Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-SC, was concerned with federal agencies that he said are not constitutional. He specifically mentioned the Department of Education, the Department of Energy and the National Labor Relations Board. If his was an accurate evaluation, then these departments should be eliminated, along with any others that may also be outside the limits of the Constitution.

According to a Gallop poll in 2022, “a 54 percent majority of Americans say the federal government has too much power, while 39 percent say it has about the right amount of power and 6 percent say too little. … Since 2005, no less than 50 percent of Americans have said they believe the federal government is too powerful, with some of those readings reaching 60 percent.”

As for the number of employees, USA Facts tells us that “as of November 2024, the federal government employed just over 3 million people. … Federal government employees work at departments or agencies housed under one of the three branches of government — executive, legislative, or judicial, though most federal agencies are under the federal executive branch. Across all US industries, it’s the15th-largest workforce overall.”

Trump has expressed his intention to address this situation. One beneficial idea for his presidency is the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency, called DOGE. This proposed presidential advisory commission will work to identify areas of inefficiency and over-reach, remove harmful and invasive regulations, identify wasteful spending and other similar things. Trump has nominated Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to run this operation.

All one has to do to understand that changes must be made is to look at the National Debt of $35 trillion, and the interest on that enormous amount of $1.2 trillion in 2023. 

We have to get the size, cost, and over-regulation of the federal government down; re-establish our energy superiority; and get inflation under control, among other important things.

We have seen so much domestic production and so many jobs in those production areas moved out of the U.S. and into foreign countries. America needs to be the primary provider of the products we need and want, and Americans should be the ones who produce them. We need to begin to bring those back.

Donald Trump intends to address these problems, but we must remember that it will take more than one year or four years to complete this gargantuan project.

The Biden administration should focus on the real problems we have

May 2, 2023

The insecure U.S. southern border allows thousands of unknown people to enter the country daily. Mexican cartels continue drug trafficking, human trafficking, and criminal entry into the country. These people kill Americans through direct violence, and through bringing in deadly fentanyl and other drugs. 

“The number of migrants apprehended by U.S. immigration authorities after crossing the Mexican border without authorization increased by 25 percent in March as the Biden administration prepares for a major policy shift next month,” CBS News reported last month. It’s good that apprehensions increased, right?

In February, U.S. Border Patrol recorded 130,000 apprehensions of illegal entries between the official ports of entry. However, in March that number grew to 162,000. We do not know how many entrants escaped capture, but we know that this year’s March apprehension number was less than in March of 2021 and 2022, despite the fact that the number of those trying to get in illegally grows in the spring.

And from the CBS News report, there is this: “Absent any major policy pivot, the Department of Homeland Security is preparing for up to 13,000 migrants to cross the southern border per day, about 400,000 each month, once Title 42 lifts in early May, according to internal projections. The Trump-era order is set to lapse once the national COVID-19 public health emergency expires on May 11.”

As recently as last month Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas continues to claim that the border is secure. “It is my testimony that the border is secure and we are working every day, day and night, to increase security,” he said in testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee on April 18.

However, anyone with eyes and an open mind knows this is profoundly untrue. That includes Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz, who said basically the exact opposite of Mayorkas. Ortiz has said that five of the nine sectors along the southern boundary were not secure, and neither was one sector of the northern border.

When asked whether he disagreed with Ortiz, his top border expert, Mayorkas said he did: “I respectfully do in that regard,” he said.

The border is not secure, and Mayorkas’ performance is disgraceful, and creates a dangerous and unacceptable situation.

With this horrible and humiliating performance by our government at the borders, the Biden administration has it focus elsewhere.

Rather than strengthen the border with more Border Patrol agents and adding barriers to slow illegal entry, President Joe Biden wants to hire more IRS agents. From Townhall.com: “The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) plans to place special gun-carrying agents in all 50 U.S. states.”

“According to the agency’s website, the Criminal Investigation (CI) division is looking for IRS employees authorized by law to carry and use firearms, which are responsible for investigating financial crimes, money laundering, tax-related identity theft, and terrorist financing efforts.

“The ‘major duties’ listed for the position say that agents will be trained to ‘follow the money’ and prosecute any financial crimes.

“’No matter what the source, all income earned, both legal and illegal, has the potential of becoming involved in crimes which fall within the investigative jurisdiction of the IRS Criminal Investigation. Because of the expertise required to conduct these complex financial investigations, IRS Special Agents are considered the premier financial investigators for the Federal government,’ the website reads.

“Additionally, agents must carry a gun and be prepared to protect themselves from physical attacks without any warning. The description for the role also cautions that the agent may face life-threatening situations forcing them to use a firearm.”

The IRS seeks to fill 360 positions in 249 locations, with at least one agent in each state, the job posting notes.

“The IRS role is to help the large majority of compliant taxpayers with the tax law, while ensuring that the minority who are unwilling to comply pay their fair share,” according to IRS.gov.

Most of the work of the IRS involves income taxes, both corporate and individual, and collecting taxes owed to the government is obviously an important function.

But is the current state of taxation and taxes collected more important than the number of illegal entrants to the country, and the violence and death to American citizens that occur daily because of the disgraceful situation at our southern border?

And isn’t the primary function of collecting taxes dependent upon agents who help tax payers with questions about their tax returns, and review tax returns for accuracy, as the IRS website states? Does the IRS really need an armed law enforcement division, and 360 new employees?

If there are really problems with tax collections warranting hiring a division of armed agents to deal with them, there is likely a simpler, safer and less expensive way to fix it: Change and simplify the tax code.

The tax code is contained in two volumes totaling 2,652 pages. And it is ridiculously complex. At 450 words per page, the tax code is well over 1 million words.

We need a low and universal tax rate, say 10 to 15 percent, and only a few deductions, for dependents and for charitable and other beneficial donations. And, obviously, some low-income people should not be taxed.