The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/79587
OPINION gressman Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential running mate is one of those decisions that seem obvious—if not inevitable—in retro- spect, even though it was by no means ob- vious to most of us beforehand. Anyone who wants to get a quick sense of Governor Mitt Romney's choice of Con- who Paul Ryan is should watch a short video of a February 2010 meeting in which Con- gressman Ryan politely, but devastatingly, "schools" Barack Obama on the utter fraud- ulence of the statistics that the Obama ad- ministration was using to claim that Obam- aCare would reduce the deficit. That video is available on the Drudge Report. As a long-time member, and now chair- man, of the Budget Committee in the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan is thoroughly familiar with both the facts and the fictions in the federal government's budget. In re- Food stamp folly Maryland gives its wel- fare recipients so they can access cash and food ben- efits? An "Independence Card." If that sounds a bit Or- Do you know what By Ed Feulner wellian, consider the per- verse spending increas- es that the Obama admin- istration has planned for food stamps and an array of other forms of welfare. Why perverse? Because the whole goal of the suc- cessful welfare reform of the 1990s was to reduce dependence. And the president's budget would do just the opposite. Mind you, spending on just one program. SNAP—included in the farm bill now up for reau- thorization—is part of a much larger welfare sys- tem that includes 79 pro- grams that provide cash, food, housing, medical care and social services to low- and no-income re- cipients. It all adds up to a lot of money. According to welfare the food-stamp program (also known as the Sup- plemental Nutrition Assis- tance Program, or SNAP) has been growing rapidly for some time now, from $19.8 billion in 2000 to $84.6 billion in 2011. Un- der the president's bud- get, this trend would con- tinue, with nearly $800 billion in food-stamp spending over the next decade. Note, too, that that's expert Robert Rector, the architect of the "90s" re- form, such "means-test- ed" aid (meaning that it's given to those who have demonstrated a financial need for it) is "the fastest growing component of government." Total federal and state spending on means-test- ed welfare more than dou- bled between 2000 and 2011—from $431 billion to $927 billion. Around one third of the population now receives some type of means-tested welfare aid. Average cost: $9,000 per recipient. And there's no end in sight. Except that, soon- er or later, there has to be. As Margaret Thatch- er once quipped of social- ism, "sooner or later, you run out of other people's money." A day of reckon- ing can be postponed for a while, but not delayed indefinitely. "The president's budget Wednesday, August 22, 2012 The Press-Dispatch Observations by Thomas Sowell The Paul Ryan choice cent years, the fictions have grown much big- ger than the facts. But, as Congressman Ryan reminded the president, hiding spending is not the same as reducing spending. If this year's election is going to be de- D-2 cided on the basis of hard facts, the Obama administration is doomed. But the Obama campaign is well aware of that, which is why we are hearing so many distracting innuen- does and outright lies about such peripher- al issues as what Mitt Romney is supposed to have done while running Bain Capital— or even what is supposed to have happened at Bain Capital, years after Mitt Romney was long gone. Continued on page 3 Are you an extremist? The no-spin zone—by Bill O'Reilly for The New York Times to define Ry- an as an "extremist." In a lead editorial, the paper bannered this sub-headline: "With no plan of his own, Mr. Romney can't distance himself from Mr. Ryan's extremist vision." That "vision" would be federal spend- ing cuts and entitlement reform. While chairman of the House Budget Paul Ryan was announced as Mitt Romney's running mate, it took less than 24 hours After Rep. somewhat ironic because President Obama's strategy of massive govern- ment spending and borrowing is per- haps the most extreme economic plan in the nation's history. Never before has the USA run up such an enormous debt and had so little to show for it. So defining Ryan as extreme is an interesting scare tactic—and one that might be extended in the days to come. Here are some other positions that the committed left media consid- er extreme: • If you believe traditional marriage Committee, Ryan sent two spending bills to the House, both of which passed but were killed in the Senate, which is controlled by the Democrats. The bills cut federal programs across the board. Ryan is also a fan of reforming Medi- care and Social Security, which are go- ing bankrupt. In the bubble that is the liberal me- dia, trimming government spending and making entitlements more fiscal- ly viable are extreme positions. That's man rights individual. • If you believe abortion is the tak- ing of a human life, you are an anti- woman extremist. • If you support securing the na- tion's borders and regulating immigra- tion, you are anti-Hispanic. The list goes on and on. By labeling someone as extreme, you should be kept as the exclusive stan- dard, you are not only extreme; you are a homophobe. • If you believe all Americans should pay less in taxes, you are greedy and an anti-poor extremist. • If you believe the Second Amend- ment gives Americans the right to buy and possess guns, you are promoting violence in an extreme way. • If you believe the government has a duty to combat overseas terrorists without giving them constitutional pro- tections, you are an extreme anti-hu- can dismiss whatever they say. That's the strategy being used against Ryan. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd writes: "Ryan should stop being so lovable. People who intend to hurt other people should wipe the smile off their faces." So in Dowd's estimation, Ryan is in politics to harm the folks. He gets up every day and plots the personal dam- age he might be able to achieve. This is now where we are in Ameri- can politics. If Ryan's reform vision will harm Americans, let's hear some spe- cifics. So far, under Obama, we have a sluggish economy, high employment and record debt. Sounds harmful to me. But then again, I'm an extremist. calls for ruinous and un- sustainable budget defi- cits," Rector says. "An important step in reduc- ing future unsustainable federal deficits would be to return total welfare spending to pre-reces- sion levels." But unless lawmakers World can be summarized by the cry "Liberté, égalité, fra- ternité." Liberty in the West- ern mindset means uninhib- ited free speech and expres- sion. That is fine, but if peo- ple carry this concept to its logical conclusion is there anything sacred? The answer is no! All be- get serious about address- ing this threat, it won't happen. The national debt is more than $16 trillion— and climbing. To make matters worse, Continued on page 3 Trying To Save The Sacred The mantra of the Western Points to ponder—by Rev. Ford Bond This is not the norm world- wide. Where free speech and expression is abridged, we hear the cries of censorship, fascists, and tyranny. But is this in itself always bad? The French sociologist liefs, institutions, and reli- gions expressions are open for mockery, derision, and ridicule. Little is valued, and nothing is sacred except the "right" to express oneself in anyway desired regardless how offensive, even to chil- dren. Emile Durkheim concluded over a century ago that a na- tion's religious beliefs is the "glue" that holds it together. Debase and assail the values of religion, then the ability of a nation to function as a col- lective unit erodes. Religion establishes the concepts that are used daily in the spheres of civil, personal, and crim- inal law. As a fact, Chris- tian scruples are the basis of Western jurisprudence. A woman's perspective—by Mona Charen Paul Ryan: Mitt Romney's line in the sand Mona Charen, who is on vacation.) Mitt Romney has outdone himself in (By David Limbaugh, filling in for choosing Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate. The conservative base is ecstat- ic, and that will translate into voter in- tensity and high turnout. Our country faces an un- precedented debt crisis, pri- marily driven by our enti- tlement programs. We have more than $100 trillion of unfunded liabilities—a staggering, incomprehen- sible number—and we are on a collision course with national bankruptcy. Obama has offered no so- dared to make the third rail of politics his calling card and to serve it up on the national stage. He presented a cred- ible, comprehensive and workable plan to structurally reform entitlements. Ryan earned national attention be- lutions; his Democratic ma- jority in the Senate has failed to pro- duce a budget in 1,200 days; and they have both obstructed the Republicans' proposed remedies. It's as if it's a game with these people and our crushing na- tional debt is but a trifling matter. Obama is not only obstructing bud- cause he addressed the issues can- didly, soberly and with such a command of the facts and attention to detail that Dem- ocrats couldn't shame him off the stage. Though he was calm in his presentation, he pulled no punches in warning that in the absence of major reforms, we would sustain a Greek-style financial collapse. Ryan has been the Antio- bama; he has provided the main adult leadership in the room, while Obama has been acting like a child in a candy store, spending every federal dollar he can get his hands on. Ryan hasn't just provided issue pa- get reform; it's almost as if he is trying to make matters worse. He has added a new major entitlement, Obamacare, and has continued to amass annual bud- get deficits in excess of $1 trillion, and his latest 10-year budget revealed he would continue to do so. Instead of re- ducing spending, he has demanded yet more "stimulus" spending and is usher- ing in the largest tax increase in U.S. history, which is guaranteed to further smother growth and probably worsen our debt problem. Not too many years ago, both par- pers; his plan was reduced to actu- al legislation and was passed in the House, only to be flatly rejected in the Democratic Senate and viciously and disingenuously mocked by President Obama. Obama knows that Ryan has been his to have avoided the entitlements issue, and some GOP advisers were urging him to do so, arguing it is a political loser because demagoguery will pre- vail over fiscal responsibility. But Romney chose the path of states- It would have been easy for Romney manship. He decided not to underesti- mate the American people and instead trusted that if properly informed, they would understand the gravity of the sit- uation we face and support the right choices. By choosing Ryan, Romney has drawn a bold line in the sand, telling the American people that his adminis- tration will tackle these problems no matter how much ridicule they receive from Obama and other Democrats. Romney isn't promising to adopt Ry- an's plan entirely, but it is obvious he embraces the underlying principles it contains: entitlement reform, dis- cretionary spending reductions, a re- sponsible national security budget and tax reform, which, when coupled with strong spending reductions, will lead to economic growth. Obama has yet to present any sem- financial nemesis; he singled him out for ridicule during his farcical biparti- san health care summit. He has casti- gated Ryan during national speeches. Ryan's inclusion on the GOP tick- ties acknowledged that our entitlement commitments were a sword hanging over our heads. But when President George W. Bush tried to begin discus- sions on Social Security reform, Dem- ocrats ridiculed and demonized him and told seniors he was after their nest eggs. But in 2008, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., et guarantees that the financial issues threatening our republic today will re- main front and center. As long as Ry- an is around and playing a prominent role, Obama simply cannot effectively duck the issue. Indeed, Romney's selection of Ryan blance of a plan to reduce spending, re- structure entitlements and bring our short- and long-term budgets into bal- ance. He has offered only class warfare and fear-mongering. The Ryan selection will force Obama that has not gained a lot of at- tention in the United States, but has in Europe. Three members of the Russian Punk Rock group known as Pussy Riot (my apologies), a self-described feminist, left- ist, and anarchist group were arrested and jailed for a pro- test they staged in Moscow. They have been charged with "premeditat- ed hooliganism performed by or- ganized group of people motivated by religious ha- tred or hostility;" which carries a sentence of up to seven years im- prisonment. The group members have pleaded not guilty, "insisting that they had not meant their protest to be offensive." The venue for the protest I came across an article by the group in March of this year was inside the Mos- cow's main cathedral Christ the Redeemer in the main chancel area. The church was dynamited in 1931 by the communists and was re- built in 2000. The European press alize the Orthodox Church historically has had close ties with the governments of Eastern Europe. Putin himself is a member of the Church and had pledged to rebuild churches destroyed under communism and en- courages Russia to embrace the church. Therein lays part of the problem. It is hard for any religious person to accept the claim this ac- tion was "a harm- less joke." In- vading a church which is consid- ered sacred and desecrat ing it with vulgar lan- guage and dress, and then claim- ing to be misun- derstood is a bit much. Nadezhda scathingly attacks Russia for arresting these women and denying them the right to ex- press themselves through music and vulgar antics. Rus- sian President Putin's detrac- tors are crying foul claiming this is a means to silence his critics. The first problem is the Western Press fails to re- MR. AND MRS. FRANK HEURING, PUBLISHERS ANDREW G. HEURING, EDITOR The Press- Dispatch JOHN B. HEURING, ADVERTISING MANAGER Wednesday, August 22, 2012 Entered at the Post Office in Petersburg, Indiana for trans- mission through the mails as Periodical Mail, Postage paid at Petersburg, Indiana. Published weekly. signals his irrevocable commitment to tackling our entitlements problem and solving our financial crisis. It loudly signals that these issues, along with re- lated economic issues, will be the cen- terpiece of his presidential campaign. and his party out of the closet and to offer some plan of their own instead of just ripping the Republicans' plans. It won't end the demagoguery, but it will smoke them out—and expose the inco- herence of their ideas. Mitt Romney's best chance of win- ning this election is to draw the stark- est of contrasts between his vision and Barack Obama's record. Choosing Paul Ryan was the best possible way to do that. Kudos to Mr. Romney. Game on. will please give old address as well as new one along with phone number. We cannot guarantee prompt change unless this is done. Postmaster: send changes to Post Office Box 68, Petersburg, Indiana 47567-0068. Change of Address—Subscribers changing addresses P.O. BOX 68, PETERSBURG, INDIANA 47567 E-mail—news@pressdispatch.net (604-340) Phone 354-8500 • FAX—354-2014 Pike and Surrounding Cos. ......$ 10.00 $15.00 $25.00 $45.00 Elsewhere in Indiana ................ 14.00 Outside Indiana ............................18.00 SUBSCRIPTION RATES 3 mos. 6 mos. 1 year 2 years 19.00 28.00 27.00 43.00 49.00 75.00 Tolokonnikova, one of the band members said, "We're clowns," not criminals; we engage in buffoonery. We're kind of crazy, but we don't promote any evil." What would be the world press's reaction be if a skin head or neo-Nazi protest group invaded a mosque or syna- gogue and mimicked sim- ilar behavior? What is get- ting lost in the discussion is that these people invaded a church to stage their protest against Putin and the Rus- sian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill. Who is right, and who is wrong? Are there limits to free speech and expression? The group called upon the Continued on page 4