The South Gibson Star-Times serves the towns of Haubstadt, Owensville and Fort Branch.
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1474503
B-2 Tuesday, July 26, 2022 South Gibson Star-Times Last week, Immigration and Cus- toms Enforcement announced the arrests of 24 sex offenders, all in the country illegally. Some might actu- ally get deported. However, given President Joe Biden's porous-bor- ders policy, there's a good chance those who are deported will come back soon. Two of the best ways to prevent crime are to keep known violent or repeat offenders behind bars and to keep known foreign criminals out of the country. Unfortunately, the Biden administration—aided and abetted by radical progressive pros- ecutors—is failing on both counts. Biden and the Left recently high- lighted the rape of a 10 -year-old girl to advance their views on abortion. What they didn't mention was the fact that the crime was preventable. Gerson Fuentes, the alleged rapist, was in the country illegally. Had the 27-year-old Guatemalan been stopped from crossing the Mexi- co-U.S. border, he never would have been living in the same house as the girl's mother. Fuentes's immigra- tion status is not only relevant; it is the very enabling factor that placed a vulnerable child in danger and al- lowed the rape to happen. Under the Biden administration, up to 70 % of Border Patrol agents are off the line and doing what es- sentially social work is: getting illegal crossers registered, then arranging travel to their preferred U.S. destination at taxpayer ex- pense. This makes it easy for dan- gerous, recidivist criminals like Fuentes to cross the border and evade inspection. Criminal records checks required in visa applications would have prevented him from get- ting a visa or even boarding a flight out of Guatemala City, but coyotes from Mexican cartels would gladly have taken his $5,000 and gotten him safely into the U.S. overland. Fuentes is not alone. Thankful- ly, despite being hobbled by Biden administration guidance, officers from ICE's Los Angeles office were still able to arrest those 24 offend- ers during a weeklong operation. They all had prior criminal convic- tions, and some were registered sex offenders. Several had previously been removed from the United States after serving their sentenc- es. In theory, those with charges outstanding could be prosecuted. But given the refusal of some big- city district attorneys to prosecute, who knows what will happen? The ICE announcement said those with criminal convictions will be "processed administratively for removal from the United States." That used to mean they would be detained until removal so that they couldn't harm any more people. But Biden's CBP has already released 750,000 illegal crossers this year. What kind of people are we talking about? Those arrested in the Los Angeles operation include a Guate- malan convicted of felony lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14, a Mexican convicted of felony sodomy by use of force/injury, and Why are Blacks still on board with Biden? New polling from Pew Research and from NY Times/Siena College, released a few days apart, cast sim- ilarly dismal pictures regarding the popularity of President Joe Biden. Overall approval for Biden from NY Times/Siena College stands at 33% and from Pew 37% . However, both polls show approv- al for the president much stronger than the national average among minorities. The NY Times/Siena college poll shows Black approval for Biden at 62 % , which, according to the Times, is higher than "any other race or ethnicity, age group or education level." Per Pew, Black approval for Biden stands at 57% . However, Pew also shows a marked difference in ap- proval for Biden from all minority groups, compared to white voters. White approval for Biden stands at 30 % , Hispanic 47% , and Asian 45% . Why the difference between whites and minorities? One obvious answer is that the white figure includes a larger per- centage of Republican voters. But this still leaves a very import- ant question that everyone, certain- ly leaders in the Republican Party, should be asking. Why do minori- ties disproportionately lean Demo- crat? Current polling shows the issues most on the minds of voters are in- flation and the economy. Inflation is nondiscriminatory. Every American is being hit by the same price increases in the super- market, at the gas pump, in housing and across the board. Given that ev- eryone is concerned about our dis- mal economy, why should approval ratings for the performance of our president be so different for whites and for minorities? Let's focus on Blacks because the difference is most pronounced here. According to survey data from the last few years compiled by my organization, CURE, there is a very large gap in attitudes among Blacks, compared with whites, re- garding the most basic functioning of the country. Many more Blacks than whites see racism still as a major problem. According to Gallup polling from last year, 84% of Blacks, compared with 59 % of whites, believe racism is widespread. Only 31% of Blacks, compared with 62 % of whites, believe that Blacks "have an equal chance of getting a job for which they are qual- ified." And, particularly telling, 74% of Blacks, compared with 48 % of whites, think "government should do more to solve problems." Responses in the new Pew Re- search polling about what's causing this latest round of price increases show how little so many Americans understand about how our economy functions. Most do not understand that in- flation is caused by government spending and printing excessive amounts of money. Most, 49 % , said it is business taking advantage of the current economic situation to raise prices. Bottom line is that in order for the Republican Party to attract more minority voters, Republicans need to do a much better job going into minority communities and educat- ing these voters about what is ac- tually going on in the country and what it means to them. Low-income Americans are dis- proportionately minority Ameri- cans. They need an economy that functions properly, an economy where prices are stable and an econ- omy that is growing at a healthy pace. They must understand that eco- nomic opportunity comes from eco- nomic growth, not from government programs. Minorities must under- stand that limited government, not bloated government, allows robust growth. As I recently wrote, the latest round of Supreme Court decisions protecting life, strengthening our Second Amendment right to bear Liberals are very good at chasing rich people out of their states. Blue states lose billions of tax dollars and many tens of thousands of jobs as a result of the migration of rich people leaving high-tax and high-crime states. It seems to hap- pen nearly every day. Consider Elon Musk. He left Cali- fornia for Texas. He paid $11 billion in federal taxes last year, and the state of California will likely lose billions in tax revenues in his ab- sence — and that doesn't include all the property and sales taxes that his Tesla employees will now pay in Texas rather than the Golden State. Texas has no state income tax, of course. Then, there is the famous story of investor Paul Tudor Jones. When he left Connecticut many years ago and took his business and earn- ings to Florida, he single-handedly drilled a $40 million revenue hole in the state budget in Hartford. He never looked back. Jeff Yass is the owner of Susque- hanna Capital in Philadelphia. He is one of the richest residents of the state, and his hedge fund is one of the Keystone State's largest employ- ers. He and his wife have donated tens of millions of dollars to educa- tion scholarships for mostly black, low-income children in the city. He is also a major donor to other char- ities in and around Pennsylvania. But recently, the Philadelphia In- quirer skewered Yass with false allegations that he doesn't pay his fair share of tax- es. Are they trying to chase him out of the state? Billionaire Citadel Capital founder Ken Griffin, one of the most philanthropic residents in the his- tory of Illinois, has moved to — where else — Florida. Bloomberg wrote a superb, well-re- searched story on what Griffin (age 53) has meant to the life and civil culture of Chicago. Griffin has do- nated more than $ 600 million to or- ganizations in the Windy City since coming to Chicago. His name hangs above a hall at the Art Institute of Chicago. The Museum of Science and Industry plans to take on his name in 2024 thanks to his mas- sive contributions. In June, Griffin donated more than $130 million across 40 Chicago organizations before leaving. He has been a major donor to schools, churches, meal programs, Northwestern Medicine, the Field Museum, and the Chicago Symphony. Many of these organiza- tions told Bloomberg that they wor- ry whether they can replace such a generous benefactor. Still, many of the class warfare ad- vocates want to raise the state income tax so people like Griffi! n will pay more. The state will lose about $200 million annually because of his departure. That is how much tax he paid in 2021 in state and local taxes. So in- stead of getting more money out of Griffin, the state will collect way less. Because Griffin is moving to Florida, another state with no in- come tax, he will save hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes, though Griffin insists his main reason for leaving is the crime wave in Chica- go and his concern about the safety of his family. The moral of these stories is that class warfare liberals can't seem to help themselves. They always kill the geese that lay the golden eggs. Pretty soon, blue-state America won't have any more rich geese to pluck. Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at Freedom Works. He is also author of the new book: "Govzilla: How The Relentless Growth of Government Is Devouring Our Economy." Race for the Cure By Star Parker Heritage Viewpoint By Simon Hankinson Biden's broken border is a gift to criminals Give Me a Break By John Stossel Eye on the Economy By Stephen Moore When billionaires leave, everyone loses Letter to the Editor Observe Second Amendment in public spaces See ON BOARD on page 3 See GERMANY on page 3 See BEEF on page 3 Where's the beef? How can it be that with so much cattle in America, we sometimes can't buy meat? At the beginning of the pandemic, Costco, Wegmans and Kroger limit- ed purchases of beef. Hundreds of Wendy's outlets ran out of hamburg- ers. "How the hell can this be? " says Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., in my new video. "They ( Wendy's) were out of hamburger, yet you could see cattle from the drive-through! " It happens because of stupid govern- ment rules. Massie owns a small farm in Ken- tucky. "I'd rather deal with cattle than congressmen," he jokes. "At least (cattle) exhibit learned behav- ior." But politicians often don't. "You're born with the right to eat what you want," says Massie. "Why is the government getting in the middle and saying, 'No, you can't buy that'? " "To keep you safe," I push back. "They're not keeping you safe," Massie responds. "They're keeping you away from good, healthy food." American meat regulation began after activist Upton Sinclair worked undercover at a meatpacking plant and then wrote the book The Jungle. It became a huge bestseller. Sin- clair's goal was to advance social- ism. But his book became famous for exposing unsanitary conditions, like rat infestations and rotting meat carcasses, at packing plants. The outcry over that led Congress in 1906 to declare that any meat sold must get a stamp of approval from the United States Department of Agriculture. What did the inspection entail? An absurd technique called "poke and sniff." To find tainted meat, fed- eral bureaucrats stuck little spikes into carcasses and then smelled the spikes. If they smelled something spoiled, they ordered that meat discarded. The process was ridicu- lous. The inspectors used the same spikes over and over, plunging them into multiple animals. Poking and sniffing sometimes made things worse by spreading disease from one carcass to the next. Of course, governments often do ridiculous things, and regulators, once they start doing them, keep do- ing them. The feds didn't stop "poke and sniff" until the late 1990s. Today, USDA inspectors do a bet- ter job. They test for bacteria. But the inspection process is so cum- bersome and expensive, many small companies can't afford it. The result, complained President Joe Biden recently, is too much mar- ket concentration: "Four big corpo- rations control more than half the markets in beef, pork and poultry! " His remedy, sadly, is to give your tax money to some smaller meat packers. Of course, such subsidies and regulations increase market concen- tration. "The bigger the government, the bigger the corporations," Massie points out. "People who don't like big corporations haven't figured that out." During the beginning of the pan- demic, it was that market concen- tration that caused meat shortages when a few big meat processing plants shut down due to COVID in- fections. "We made our food supply brit- tle," says Massie. "One small dis- ruption throws the whole thing off." When the processors shut down, some ranchers who couldn't get to a federally approved slaughterhouse ended up killing their own animals. If only they'd been able to go to a lo- cal processor. Massie takes his cattle to one. There, he can see the conditions himself. His local slaughterhouse meets state inspection standards. But since it is not USDA-certified, Massie and other ranchers who have their cattle processed there may not sell you a steak. He can, however, give it to you or eat it him- self. But he may not sell it. To fix that, Massie proposes a new law: the PRIME Act, which would let farmers sell meat processed by state-approved slaughterhouses, with no federal meddling. "You're self-dealing," I tell him. "Just trying to help yourself." "I've got 50 cattle," he replies. To the Editor: Something that has bothered me for a long time, four years to be precise, is that when I walk into work at the public state fund- ed University of Southern Indiana that has 18 -20 buildings, each with 3 or 4 doors, no metal detectors, no guards, no sign-in - there is simply a stamp on the door that says, "No Firearms Permitted" - I gage a lit- tle each time. USI is not a private company and thus to me differentiates it from holding its own liberty to run the business as it sees fit. It is state-funded and therefore a prop - erty of the people of the state. The State of Indiana issued and granted me a concealed carry per- mit and I bought my weapons legal- ly. Why, then, can 'the state' tell me without any procedure in place to equalize all, that I am not permitted to carry? I feel the criminally insane read that as "sitting ducks" and I am sim- ply waiting for a disgruntled college student to come to my office upset they spent tens of thousands of dol- lars and can't find a job. I'd like to see this issue brought up at our state house to allow teach- ers in public schools to carry, allow state employees to carry, allow em- ployees of any state-funded institu- tion to carry. 98 % of mass shootings take place in "gun free" zones; while 100 % of mass shootings are stopped by good people with guns, with the rare exception of gunman suicide. The Indianapolis mall shooting was stopped by a law-abiding citi- zen legally carrying. It's time my taxpayer dollars stop funding an unconstitutional rule. If they want to ignore the Second Amendment, then let's pull the state funding and let them be a pri- vate institution. Perhaps this next legislative cy- cle, this idea could be made into law. But it can't be done alone. Contact your State Senators and Represen- tatives and tell them it is time! John Perkins Gibson County Republican Chairman