Email to Representative Neugebauer (Texas)

Copy of open email to Representative Neugebauer (Texas):

Randy,
    I read your newsletter, and have a few comments.
    On comprehensive immigration reform, you say a bipartisan group from the House of Representatives will soon release a proposal and that you are waiting to learn the details. It seems to me that you should be part of the bipartisan group preparing the details. I agree with the various points you make on the subject, but you don't need to sell them to me, you need to sell them to your Congressional Associates.
    On the subject of the proposed $100 departure tax for airline passengers, I suggest you look at the detail. If this is a general tax, you and I should be opposed. On the other hand, if it is a recovery of an expense from operating the system of air traffic control or other aspects related to airport operations, passengers should pay the required fee. It should not be the taxpayer's responsibility to subsidize traffic or anything else through government doles.
    If the "morning after" pill adequately prevents conception without any significant negative physiological reactions, I believe it should be offered over-the-counter in the same way as aspirin. Such availability will undoubtedly contribute to the use of abortion by young teenagers. While I don't believe that is desirable, the present socialistic system of health benefits at the expense of taxpayers justifies such action. If one less child is born out of wedlock and forced on the taxpayers for public support, there is an obvious economic advantage. Let us also remember that it is the basic parent's responsibility to educate their children on sex and control their actions when they are underage. If you want to avoid the availability of the "morning after" pill to teenagers, you are obligated to also revise the healthcare system so that it is no longer publicly supported.
 You have not mentioned the details about the three items that you will be voting on next week. However, on the Energy item, you will want to strongly support the Keystone pipeline and increased availability of permits for oil and natural gas drilling on federal lands, including coastal water areas. On the National Labor Relations Board item, your position should be that government should not support the development of unions. However, workers should have the right to establish unions and worker participation should be optional without the mandatory payment of union dues. The five-year Farm Bill item should be primarily directed to stabilization of farm product availability to avoid potential famine. It should allow for market forces to be at work in order to generally control prices and availability within normal limits and allow for government interference using more drastic measures only when food shortages are obviously imminent.

Sen. Cruz's (Texas) Newsletter

Open email to Sen. Cruz:

Sen. Cruz,
    I have read your newsletter.
    If Pres. Obama signs the UN arms treaty, I suggest you take any steps necessary to nullify our involvement, including resigning from the UN.
    We also need a workable immigration and border control system, but the controversy should not be so intense is to cloud the real issue of our existence, which is the requirement for government expenditure cuts and reduction of the national debt. 

Pres. Obama's Windmills

The following is from an associate:

     Even to the casual observer it must be obvious that we do not have a president but instead a modern day Don Quixote - a man of La Mancha. It takes little genius to identify the "windmills".

    Here is a short list of the "windmills"  that Obama and his administration are tilting with.  Unfortunately, these exercises are expensive at a time when the single most important issue facing our country is the federal debt and federal deficit spending.

1.  The Department of Agriculture has proposed a rule requiring meat packers to label their products with the source of the meat; namely, where was the animal slaughtered?  I don't know how important that information is to you, but it has never occurred to me to raise the question.

2.  The EPA has issued a rule requiring that petroleum refiners reduce the sulfur content of motor fuels. You realize that sulfur dioxide is water soluble and, when it rains, the atmosphere is scrubbed.  You may remember "acid rain"; that is, the rain containing dissolved sulfur dioxide was acidifying fresh water lakes to the detriment of aquatic life and killing trees.  Mysteriously, the problem disappeared.  However, this time, the EPA is stating that removing sulfur from motor fuel will save 20,000 lives year - people with asthma and other breathing problems. Who knows the source of their claim, but consider this:  When it rains, the atmosphere is scrubbed of sulfur dioxide.  There are regions that receive little rainfall.  They are called deserts.  Not too many people live there.

3. We are now being told that the number of children suffering from lead poisoning is increasing. There have been two important sources of lead in the environment;  tetra ethyl lead in gasoline and lead carbonate as a pigment in paint.  The use of tetra ethyl lead in gasoline was discontinued in the 1960s and lead carbonate has not been used in paint since the 1970s.  Who knows what new protection our bureaucrats have in store for us?

There are many more.

Expanding Government

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    I thought we were embarked on a program of smaller government, and we even have a sequester in order to start that.    Is Congress being mealy-mouthed about this program, or does it want to take some sort of action against new hiring when there is talk of laying off?

Congressional Term Limits

    Congress now has an all time low rating in the minds of the American public. This seems inconsistent, because it is the American public which elects the Congress. However, it is the explainable when one considers that the election process involves a majority opinion of citizens. Many of the citizens are not knowledgeable of issues and vote on the basis of name recognition. Later, they recognize that the actions of the people they voted for have been inconsistent with their desires, which is then registered as a low Congressional rating.
    When a Congressperson spends the majority of his time and effort on developing name recognition for reelection, the country suffers because of Congressional inaction in accomplishing programs which are of benefit to the development of the country as a whole. In other words, Congresspersons relegate themselves to political hacks rather than statesmen.
    Related to the election process is also the matter of earmarks or pork for constituents. The local public generally sends its Congresspersons to Washington to obtain for it some government benefits. This is a natural consequence of human nature and all talk of eliminating earmarks or pork in general is really not appropriate. Pork is a strong basis on which a Congressperson arrives in Washington and stays there. However, pork is not a single entity to a single Congressperson. Pork is distributed among Congresspersons based on negotiation. It is the president's responsibility to see that the total pork bill is within reasonable limits of the federal budget.
    Considering the negative influences of Congresspersons' concentrations to retaining their jobs indefinitely and excessive total pork, some obvious changes would be desirable.
    The first change should be to modify the Congressperson's attitude toward more statesmanlike activities for the country rather than concentrate on reelection. This would involve term limits, which have been previously suggested, but never making any progress, because it is equivalent to asking the fox to deny himself entrance to the chicken house. However, it could be done by a group of citizens introducing the subject as part of the reelection process. For example, a question to be asked to a Congressperson running for reelection would be whether he would vote for term limits. If he replied negatively, he would not obtain the support of the group for reelection. Additionally, there are some older Congresspersons, who would like to retire with some legacy toward statesmanship and would independently support term limits. Perhaps these could lead the charge.

Penalties for Administrative People

Open email to Sen. Cornyn (TX):

Dear Sen. Cornyn,
    I like your amendment to the recent Senate budget bill, wherein you withhold the pay of the Director of The Office of Management and Budget and other related budget preparation persons, when they are late in submitting the required budget.
    This is particularly interesting, because it's a first step by Congress to hold various people of the Administration responsible for properly doing their jobs. This is particularly true of the various Federal agencies. For each of these agencies, I believe there is an equivalent Senate overseeing committee. The Senate committees need to take more forceful actions with these various agencies to follow the laws previously established by Congress and approved by the President. We see too many cases where persons take inappropriate actions, inconsistent with the original law or regulation. These people do damage and need to be restrained. I believe that should be the responsibility of the Congressional oversight committees.

Federal Budget

Open email to Representative Randy Neugebauer (TX):

Randy,
    I read your latest newsletter and watched your remarks on the House floor concerning a balanced federal budget.
    The plan is to balance the budget in 10 years. That means we will continue to be out of balance, or in effect, spending more money than we have for the next nine years. I will grant that a federal government budget has some unusual aspects compared to a personal budget, but they are not completely different. They involve pluses and minuses or income and expenses.    If I were to spend more than I take in for nine straight years, I would be bankrupt and on the government dole. On a more basic aspect closer to nature, if I were to eat less for nine straight years than I need to stay alive, I would be dead.    I will grant that it took us a long time to get into this deficit situation, presumably because we didn't watch what we were doing, but that doesn't mean that it would similarly take a long time for us to correct the errors.
    I don't want Ryan's budget, which increases government spending 3% each year. That's out of balance, because we are increasing spending by that amount, when we already know we have a deficit income. A ridiculous proposal! Go to the chopping block! There will be pain, but any time there has been access, the result will be pain. Example, overeating causes obesity with subsequent probability of an early death. The solution is to go on a diet, but it is painful. Taking cocaine can presumably give a feeling of joy and exhilaration, but it is said that the withdrawal pain is horrendous.
    Is there a choice on the budget? No! We are on the road to devastation. Let's move to the pain, with the expectation that we can get back to life.

    In a second part of your newsletter, you said that you are moving to assure that taxpayer dollars are not used in abortion programs in public schools. On the surface, this sounds good, but go back to what I said previously about the budget. It's silly to talk about taxpayer funded abortions in public schools, when we should not be sending any taxpayer dollars to public schools. Public schools should be funded by local citizens or eliminated with the establishment of private schools. The federal government has no business in education. That should be part of the new budget.