The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/668770
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, April 20, 2016 D-1 OPINION Submit Letters to the Editor: Letters must be signed and received by noon on Mondays. Email: editor@pressdispatch.net or bring in a hard copy: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg The apostle Paul wrote to the Romans "Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, and honor the king" Until the modern era no people had direct input in choosing one's "king' [representative], That is not the case in our times. That being said it is obvious that in recent months two men have shaken the primary process to its foundation; Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Early last fall there were pro- nouncements by the political elites that the candidates for the 2016 presidential election would be Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton. Clinton may get the democratic nod but before we outright dismiss Sanders, be mindful he is attract- ing crowds which means voters. But something happened to Jeb on the way to the primary. His name is Donald Trump. What the republican estab- lishment failed to grasp early on was Trump was connecting to the working class-now he is viewed as a threat to the establishment. Without question there is a con- certed effort to stop the Trump express from reaching the magic number of delegates to clinch the Republican nomina- tion before their con- vention in Cleveland. The Boston Globe [Sunday April 10] ran a series of news ar- ticles what a Trump presidency would look like-who says news- papers do not make news? The insurgency against Trump is nothing new in politics. Google the 1952 Republican pri- mary/convention and read how the "establishment" worked to ensure Robert Taft of Ohio would not get the nomination [he was known as Mr. Republican]. Closer to home read how the "es- tablishment" worked against re- publican George Craig in his run for Indiana governor [1952]. Establishment politics play rough and hold grudges. One ob- server remarked about Craig's lack of success as governor in a re- publican state "…it was as if there were three parties in the assem- bly—the pro-Craig, the anti-Craig, and the Democratic parties." Americans need to realize that the anti- Trump barrage is an attempt by the par- ty establishment to maintain control of the party apparatus. The Drudge Report the last few days in its Header contained a lit- any of anti-democratic antics by the party to derail Trump. This action against the populous is not an exclusive trait to Ameri- can politics. Last year the major political par- ties in Canada purged their ranks of candidates who digress from the party platform. Those targeted had made hurt- ful statements against Israel, ho- mosexuals, women, Muslims, im- migrants, and party policy. The message the parties want to project to the people is they are inclusive and multicultural in their policies toward all people. Republican presidential can- Continued on page 2 Continued on page 2 Continued on page 2 Observations by Thomas Sowell The Weekly by Alden Heuring Campaign lies Continued on page 2 Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond The Energizer Bunny keeps on going Unleash the power of real tax reform The battle for religious freedom Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner Pursuit of the Cure by Star Parker If you took all the lies out of po- litical rhetoric, how much would be left? Apparently even less than usual this year. The latest, and perhaps big- gest, lie – thus far – is that Don- ald Trump was cheated out of dele- gates in Colorado because the vot- ers did not select the delegates. Two very different questions have gotten confused with each other. One question is whether this is the best way to choose del- egates. Most of us would say "No," but most of us don't live in Colora- do, and each state is allowed great leeway in how it chooses to pick its delegates. The more fundamental ques- tion is whether this was some trick cooked up to deprive Don- ald Trump of the delegates need- ed to win the Republican nomina- tion. That is of course how Donald Trump and his followers automat- ically depict anything that doesn't work out to his advantage. But the Colorado rules were written and known to all before anybody cast a single vote in the primary elections, anywhere in the country. If the people who ran the Trump campaign were not aware of what the rules in Colorado were, and Ted Cruz's people were, that is what happens when you hire peo- ple who are not up to the challeng- es of their job. The fact that one of those people has been fired and re- placed has gotten much less me- dia attention than Trump's loud- ly repeated charges that he was robbed. With so many primary election rules that vary from one state to another, some of these rules are bound to work out to one candi- date's advantage and another can- didate's disadvantage. When Trump, for example, wins less than a majority of a state's votes and yet gets 100 percent of its delegates, you don't hear oth- er candidates yelling or whining that they have been robbed. But the cold fact is that Trump's per- centage of the delegates is still higher than his percentage of the people who actually voted for him. Apparently it all depends on whose ox is gored – and who yells the loudest, with the most irre- sponsible charges. It also depends on how conscientious the media are and how gullible the voters are. Other political campaign lies have been repeated so often, over so many years, that they have be- come part of a tradition that is al- most never questioned. Demands for "equal pay" for women, for ex- ample, proceed without even a def- inition of what that means. Some years ago, I was shocked when my research turned up the fact that young male physicians earned substantially more than young female physicians. But, when my research also turned up the fact that young male phy- sicians work hundreds of hours more per year than young female physicians, it was not shocking any more. Other researchers, many of them female, have found the same pattern in other fields where there are income differences be- tween the sexes. Women work few- er hours annually than men, and do not work full-time and contin- uously over the years as often as men do. Among college graduates, wom- en receive more than three-quar- ters of the degrees in education, while men receive more than three-quarters of the degrees in engineering. When engineers are paid more than teachers – part- ly because engineers work year round, while teachers work 9 months – do not be surprised by sex differences in earnings among college graduates. None of this is news for people who have checked out the facts. Researchers – including female researchers – have repeatedly turned up such facts for decades. But the politicians, and much of the media, prefer a moral melo- drama, starring themselves on the side of the angels against the forces of evil. That wins votes, helps T V rat- ings and lets lots of people feel good about themselves. But this also requires a gullible public. A very similar game can be played with racial statistics. What Tax reform often seems like an elusive goal. But as we mark anoth- er Tax Day, conservatives should be pleased about where we are on this issue. We've come a long way in just a few years. The ideal tax reform would low- er tax rates on families and busi- nesses and establish a consump- tion tax base. A consumption base doesn't necessarily mean a sales tax. It means any plan that doesn't tax saving and investment multiple times like the current one does. A flat tax, for example, is a consump- tion tax. In 2012, Mitt Romney released a tax plan when he was running for president. The plan made many improvements to the tax code, but it wouldn't have allowed the econo- my to grow at its potential because it didn't move far enough toward a consumption tax. His plan lowered rates and broadened the tax base, which was good. However, he severely constrained the plan by adhering to revenue-neutrality — meaning his plan raised the same amount of revenue as the cur- rent system. So he couldn't lower rates or reduce tax on sav- ing and investment enough to get strong growth effects. To be sure, the eco- nomic climate was much different four years ago in a way that made proposing tax cuts difficult. Deficits were his- torically large, and revenues still were well below historical norms owing to the Great Recession. Two years later, Dave Camp, then-chairman of the tax-writ- ing House Ways and Means Com- mittee, released his draft tax re- form proposal. In many ways, Mr. Camp's draft mirrored Mr. Rom- ney's. It reduced rates and broad- ened the tax base, but it, too, fell prey to revenue neutrality. The plan didn't reduce rates enough or substantially cut taxes on sav- ing and investment. Both plans feel like the distant past now. Several past and pres- ent presidential can- didates — from Jeb Bush and Marco Ru- bio to Donald Trump and Ted Cruz — have released tax-reform plans that break the Romney-Camp mold. And with good rea- son. The economy, while still growing more slowly than it should, has improved. That means revenues have increased. That growth, combined with President Obama's steep tax increases from Obamacare, the 2013 fiscal-cliff tax hikes, and the end of the pay- roll tax holiday, has driven tax re- ceipts above their historical norm. There's ample room for a tax cut now. In fact, one is needed to return revenues to their histori- Georgia Republican Governor Nathan Deal recently vetoed H.B. 757, the Georgia Religious Liber- ty Bill. The governor warned that he would veto any legislation that "al- lows discrimination in our state in order to protect people of faith." He went on to tell fellow Republicans, who shepherded the bill that they should "recognize that the world is changing around us." Governor Deal wasn't alone in issuing warnings about the bill. Large corporations with a pres- ence in the state threatened to pull operations out of Georgia if the bill passed. Perhaps this was more on Governor Deal's mind than our changing world. This served up deja vu from an attempt in Indiana last year to pass a similar, but tougher, religious lib- erty bill. The Indiana legislation was more far-reaching because it in- cluded protections for all busi- nesses. The Georgia bill focused just on faith-based organizations. Indiana Governor Mike Pence also backed down, weakening key provi- sions of the Indiana law as result of pres- sure from businesses in his state. These state reli- gious liberty laws are spinoffs from the na- tional Religious Free- dom Restoration Act, which was signed into law by President Clinton in 1993. The thrust of the law is to assure that government action does not unreasonably impede private cit- izens from practicing their faith. The Supreme Court found that RFR A could only apply to actions by the federal government, so states must address state religious freedom individually. As government has become in- creasingly aggressive and expan- sive in its actions on matters such as abortion, birth control and gay rights, there has been increas- ing concern on the part of Chris- tian Americans to pro- tect themselves in the workplace from forced government participa- tion in practices that violate their religious convictions. These concerns became more acute when the Supreme Court legalized same- sex marriage last year. The tension we have is that God- fearing Christians don't want to be forced by government, in their hiring and in their religious and business practices, to be involved with what violates core principles of their faith. On the other hand, those supporting gay marriage, for instance, claim refusal to provide religious and business services to these couples amounts to discrim- ination. Maybe its time to recall what Puzzled about what to read? ..and you will have your solution. subscribe to 812-354-8500 Cat does the crime, cat does the time Diamond is grounded. No cat- nip, no unsupervised outside time, no fish-flavored treats. My tubby inside cat got herself into some big trouble last week. As many of you know, I recent- ly adopted a skinny stray house cat to be my outside cat, eat my cat food and receive my kitty love. Of course, this adoption didn't sit well with Diamond, who's been spoiled rotten for most of her adult life. Being a cat, she is incapable of love, so, of course, she doesn't comprehend that I can multiply my kitty love for her and Mrs. Mys- tery-Whiskers (that's my second cat's name), rather than dividing it down the middle. I can't multiply cat food though, which is probably her biggest concern. Diamond has never been more angry than when she realized a portion of her Me- ow Mix (the only one cats ask for by name!) was going outside to feed a scrawny upstart of a stray. Her words, not mine. She meowed them, angrily. When Diamond was just hiss- ing and pawing at Mrs. Mystery- Whiskers through the front storm door, I didn't really mind. When she would go outside and give Mrs. Mystery-Whiskers sullen looks on her way to munch the grass, that was okay, too. I don't expect Dia- mond to be virtuous, just non-vi- olent. Well, therein lies the problem. By and by, a third cat, who I will call Stinker for lack of a printable expletive to use, found out that kit- ty food was being deposited on the Heuring porch. Stinker is a fat or- ange tomcat who's been a stray for so long, he more or less rules the streets of Bowman, Ind., (all two of them). I've seen Stinker around before while driving: cowering un- der bushes at the side of the road, tormenting my neighbor's dogs with some of his gangster-cat lack- eys, peeing in the grass and so on. General feline delinquency stuff. That was all fine and dandy. I don't begrudge a stray their existence. What I do begrudge is that Stinker's been bullying Mrs. Mys- tery-Whiskers and taking my cat food that I put out for her. Being a house cat by birth, and skinny, Mrs. Mystery-Whiskers' defense mechanism is to first offer her bel- ly as a gesture of friendship and submission, and then, when said belly is clawed by a cat with no manners, to run like heck. She's very fast. I caught Stinker on MY porch, eating MY cat food, right af- ter he'd run MY outside cat off, and if I'd been any faster he would have got MY boot in his fat gut. I do not love all cats equally, by the way. Anyway, after chasing him off a couple times, you can imagine my utter shock and appallment when I go out to bring Diamond inside and find her FR ATERNIZ- ING WITH THE ENEMY. You read that right, ladies and gentle- men, my inside cat has befriend- ed this shady character, probably drawn to him by their mutual de- spisement of my outside cat. (Di- amond's spayed, thank God, or I'd have to figure what to do with Stinker's disgusting spawn a few months from now. I mean, obvious- ly I'd find good homes for them, I'm not a brute, but I would take no pleasure in it.) So, yes, Diamond is grounded. I won't have any cat of mine hanging around with a bully, smoking cat- nip and pulling the tails off mice, or whatever it is Stinker and his gang do, and I especially won't have her inflicting physical violence on poor Mrs. Mystery-Whiskers. Diamond was bred and raised to be a spoiled brat, but at the very least I have to help her become a dignified and proper spoiled brat. It's my duty as her person. How long am I grounding her, you ask? As long as it takes.