North Carolina’s Democratic Governor, Beverly Perdue, has a keen idea to help Congress focus on the economy: just cancel Congressional elections in 2012.

At a rotary speech in Cary, NC, the governor stated:

"I don’t know if the president or any of the candidates for president, quite frankly, of either party, have a solid tool set to help us out…We all want to be number one. I want North Carolina to be number one. You have to have more ability from Congress, I think, to work together and to get over the partisan bickering and focus on fixin’ things. I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that. The one good thing about Raleigh is that for so many years we’ve worked across party lines, so we’ll It’s not impossible to try to do what is right for the state. You want people who don’t worry about the next election."

Perdue’s camp immediately went into spin mode, claiming the governor was only joking. Her spokesman, Chris Mackey, said, “Gov. Perdue was obviously using hyperbole to highlight what we can all agree is a serious problem: Washington politicians who focus on their own election instead of what’s best for the people they serve.”

Although an audio recording proves otherwise, Mackey is sticking to his story.  Indeed, the full context shows her remarks, although targeting Congressional elections, would be applicable to the presidential election, as well.

Gov. Perdue’s remarks are part of an increasingly open strategy to impose the president’s agenda through administrative channels — something bordering on dictatorial powers or open fascism.

To see the video and read the full story, click here for Floyd Reports.

Others defending Gov. Perdue suggest she was using sarcasm or irony or … maybe she was just speaking plainly.  You can hear the recording and decide for yourself.

While she may not be your governor, questions to every public official may be appropriate from Perdue’s speech.  Tulsa Today suggests you ask the following:

• Do you believe elite leadership can centrally plan a modern economy?  (Even Communist China says no.  How did that work for your parents planning your life or you planning your child’s life?)
• Do you believe big business and government should control economic development?  (Crony Capitalism is not free enterprise and both political parties have advanced this evil.)
• Does the Rule of Law apply to all?  (If not in the present day, what makes government think they still have the Consent of the Governed?  Is the President or Congress above the Rule of Law?)
• Do you believe the limits on government power within the Constitution of
  the United States are worth defending with your life?  (If not, will
  you resign today?)

Today, Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) sent a letter to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction urging the Committee’s members to include strong measures to reduce waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid in its proposal to Congress this fall. Specifically, the Senators requested that the Committee use the waste- and fraud-fighting provisions of their bipartisan bill, The Medicare and Medicaid Fighting Fraud and Abuse to Save Taxpayers Dollars Act (S. 1251) – or the "FAST" Act – introduced in June 2011.  

In the letter, the Senators cite the tens of billions of dollars lost to waste, fraud and abuse within Medicare each year. While these losses put a major drain on the federal budget, the Senators note that there are clear steps that Congress – and the Joint Committee – can take to greatly reduce the amount of money lost each year by adopting provisions of their bipartisan bill, the "FAST" Act. The FAST Act would greatly enhance program integrity efforts underway at Medicare and Medicaid to prevent waste and fraud.  The legislation would save scarce taxpayer dollars while protecting quality healthcare coverage for the millions of Americans who depend on Medicare and Medicaid and do so without compromising the pay given to healthcare providers for the quality care they provide.
 
"The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction is charged with the monumental assignment of recommending over a trillion dollars in cuts to our nation’s deficit," said Sen. Carper. "The FAST Act can help that effort by putting important tools in place to reduce the billions of dollars lost to waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid.  Reducing the waste and fraud that plagues these two vital healthcare programs that millions of Americans depend on, while still protecting the quality of care they provide and achieving our nation’s deficit reduction goals, is a win-win-win that all Americans can support. While the FAST Act is not a silver bullet to solve our nation’s budgetary woes, it is an important piece of the deficit reduction puzzle and deserves serious consideration from the Committee. This is the right thing to do, both for the health of Medicare and Medicaid and for our federal budget as a whole."
 
"Each year we don’t reform Medicare and Medicaid, tens of billions of dollars will continue to be lost to waste, fraud and abuse," said Dr. Coburn. "Now is the time to reject the status quo and implement long-term solutions. The FAST Act provides a widely supported guideline for taking an important first step toward program integrity and deficit reduction." 
 
The FAST Act has garnered support from a number of organizations including AARP, Citizens Against Government Waste, the National Taxpayers Union and Taxpayers for Common Sense. 

The full text of the letter follows:
 
September 29, 2011
 
The Honorable Jeb Hensarling, Co-Chair
The Honorable Patty Murray, Co-Chair
Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction
825B Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
 
Dear Representative Hensarling and Senator Murray:
 
We are writing to ask that you consider including strong measures to reduce waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid in the proposal the Joint Select Committee makes to Congress this fall.
 
Each year, Medicare and Medicaid lose tens of billions of dollars to waste, fraud and abuse. According to estimates prepared by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the two programs together made an estimated $70 billion dollars in improper payments in fiscal year 2010.  In addition, experts believe that these two vital programs will likely lose tens of billions of dollars in fraud each year as well. Without a doubt, waste and fraud from Medicare and Medicaid are a major drain from the federal budget.
 
However, there are clear steps Congress can take to greatly reduce the amount of money lost each year to waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid. A number of those steps are included in legislation we introduced this summer, The Medicare and Medicaid Fighting Fraud and Abuse to Save Taxpayers Dollars Act (S. 1251) – or the "FAST" Act (see attached).  The legislation has already garnered a substantial number of bipartisan cosponsors in the Senate.  
 
Each of the FAST Act provisions aims to greatly enhance program integrity efforts underway at Medicare and Medicaid to prevent waste and fraud. Among its provisions, the legislation would:
 
o   enact stronger penalties for Medicare and Medicaid fraud;
o   establish stronger prevention strategies to help phase out the practice of "pay and chase;"
o   curb the theft of physician and beneficiary identities;
o   improve the sharing of fraud data across agencies; and
o   deploy cutting-edge technology to better identify and prevent fraud.
 
This bipartisan bill does not make changes to coverage for beneficiaries or change medical service pricing. Because of its common-sense approach, the legislation has garnered support from a number of organizations including AARP, Citizens Against Government Waste, the National Taxpayers Union and Taxpayers for Common Sense. In fact, most of the provisions are based on findings and recommendations from the Government Accountability Office, the HHS Office of the Inspector General, and other trusted experts and stakeholders. Additionally, several of the provisions are Administration proposals that have not yet been enacted or implemented.

The millions of Americans who depend on Medicare and Medicaid will benefit when these programs are strengthened through the prevention of waste and fraud. In order to protect the programs’ finances and the Americans who count on them, we respectfully request that you adopt the FAST Act as part of your final plan.

 
Sincerely,
 
Tom Carper                                         
United States Senator
 
Tom Coburn M.D.
United States Senator 
 

Fox News is reporting that not only did U.S. officials approve, allow and assist in sales of more than 2,000 guns to the Sinaloa cartel — the Feds used tax money to buy semi-automatic weapons, sold them to criminals and then watched as the guns disappeared. The guns killed U.S. Agents and American civilians.

This disclosure, revealed in documents obtained by Fox News, could undermine the Department of Justice’s previous defense that Operation Fast and Furious was a "botched" operation where agents simply "lost track" of weapons as they were transferred from one illegal buyer to another. Instead, it heightens the culpability of the federal government as Mexico, according to sources, has opened two criminal investigations into the operation that flooded their country with illegal weapons.

Operation Fast and Furious began in October 2009. In it, federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives encouraged gun stores to sell weapons to an arms smuggling gang, then watched as the guns crossed the border and were used in crimes. Each month, the agency allowed hundreds of guns to go South, despite opposition from some agents.

All told, the gang spent more than $1.25 million for the illegal guns.

In June 2010, however, the ATF dramatically upped the ante, making the U.S. government the actual "seller" of guns.

Click here to read the story at www.FoxNews.com. 

The results of last Saturday’s Florida straw poll sent a message to Washington, D.C., and the media establishment. “We the people” are still in charge of this country. The actual vote still matters, not just what the political and media pundits anticipate.

My winning total of 37 percent of the vote eclipsed the so-called two front-runners combined.  Both campaign camps have tried to spin the results for other than what they really suggest. Namely, the citizen’s movement is bigger and more influential than most people recognize, and that message is more powerful than money.

Governors Romney and Perry spent a considerable amount of money trying to influence the outcome of the Florida straw poll.  We rented a bus and did some bus tours, which gave me an opportunity to give a lot of speeches about my solutions on how to fix our nation’s crises, instead of more political rhetoric and ideas that all sound the same.

For example, Mitt Romney said during the last presidential debate that when he served as governor of Massachusetts, he didn’t inhale.  His plan for economic growth and jobs suggests otherwise.  It tries to incorporate tax policy, regulatory policy, trade policy, energy policy, labor policy, human capital policy and fiscal policy all in one plan, which makes it complex.  Worst yet, his ideas pivot off of the current tax code.

Just like all of the other presidential primary candidates if they have a plan, they swap out one set of tax code loopholes for another set of loopholes.  This keeps the lobbyists employed and the tax code growing, but nothing gets solved.

My 9-9-9 economic growth and jobs plan deals with economic growth and jobs.  It starts with throwing out the existing tax code.  Maybe this is why it fits on two pages instead of Mitt’s 160-page book.  My plan can be crafted into legislation that I plan to get Congress to pass in the first 90 days of my administration.  Mitt’s plan would require at least several pieces of big legislation, which would take a long time to get passed in Congress due to the complexity alone.

Our economy is on life support. It can’t afford to keep waiting.

One of my guiding principles is that, if the public understands it, they will support it and demand that Congress pass it.  I now realize that I should have also said if they can read it first.  I invite all of you to read Mitt’s 160-page book and then get back to me.  Or, you can read my two-page plan, which is easy to read and understand.

After five presidential debates, many people are starting to notice that even though I may not be getting as much air time as other candidates, my responses are consistently about specific solutions on the major issues.  The other candidates talk about the issues and offer the usual generic ideas for what we ought to do.  If not that, they attack each other for past political missteps or what a problem should be called.  Who cares what you call it?  People want to hear about solutions.

My proposal to fix Social Security, for example, is to offer a personal retirement account option to younger workers patterned after the models used in Galveston County, Texas, and the nation of Chile.  It has also been used successfully in 30 other countries, but you did not hear about any of that during the post-debate media coverage.   

Although we are encouraged by the Florida straw polls results, we still have a lot of work to do and a long way to go in this campaign marathon. We are even more encouraged at how many people are starting to clearly see the difference between the usual political rhetoric and solutions that make sense.

“We the people” are not going to settle for more of the same in 2012.

Some people are thinking Cain. 

Our nation’s economy must be strengthened.  No new jobs were created during the month of August, and unemployment remains over 9 percent, meaning 14 million Americans are still without jobs.  Cue President Obama’s preferred style of leadership: a high profile speech followed by campaign-styled stops in future battleground states.  

Throughout history, numerous politicians have believed that if they say something enough times, the people will believe it’s true.  I used to say that President Bill Clinton had a gift for being able to say things that weren’t true with greater conviction than anyone else.  That was before President Obama came along, proving that he is even more gifted than President Clinton.

Take, for instance, Obama’s 32 minute long address to a joint session of Congress earlier this month.  Billed as a “jobs” speech, President Obama pitched his ideas for yet another stimulus package, calling on Congress to “pass this bill” right away 14 separate times.  At the time of his call, there was no such bill, and up until that point, the President had failed to work with Congress and provide leadership to address our nation’s economy.  Now that his own re-election draws near, the President is trying to pivot and pass the blame to Congress.

In 2009, President Obama and the Democratically controlled Congress passed the President’s so-called stimulus bill that increased government spending by over $800 billion.  It failed to stimulate, and now the unemployment rate is higher than it was before the bill was enacted.  More government spending didn’t work then, and it won’t work now.

What’s worse, using the trappings of this major speech, he told the American people – who are rightfully concerned about runaway government spending – that the bill will be fully paid for. He said that three separate times during the speech.

But all he has proposed to pay for the proposal are tax increases on job creators and domestic energy producers that he’s tried many times to have enacted.  Each time he has tried this approach, even when Democrats controlled Congress, it has failed! Saying over and over again that the bill is paid for with tax increases that will never pass Congress does not mean that the bill is actually paid for.

In reality, his promise that “everything in this bill will be paid for” is akin to those who say “the check is in the mail” to buy time and dodge a debt collector when in fact, there is no check in the mail.  We are long past the time of using Washington gimmicks, failed tax hike proposals, and sleight-of-hand accounting to justify out-of-control federal spending.

By telling Congress to pass his bill, he expects the American people to accept the assertion that even more government spending will fix our economy without bleeding any red ink.  Hogwash!

Like a broken record, President Obama wants to use more deficit spending to stimulate the economy, but he doesn’t want to pay for it with spending cuts.  Rather, he wants to pay for his one-year “jobs” bill with economy crushing and job-killing tax hikes that will plague the economy’s future.

As the President trots around the country campaign-style repeating the phrase “pass this bill” over and over again, Congress and the American people should answer:  “Mr. President, your check is in the mail.”