Forum:What Are The 5 Most Important Issues To You In The Coming Election?

The Watcher’s Council

2016 Election

Every week on Monday morning, the Council and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher’s Forum with short takes on a major issue of the day, the culture or daily living. This week’s question: What Are The 5 Most Important Issues To You In The Coming Election?

Don Surber: 1. Electing a Republican not named Jeb! Bush.

The Independent Sentinel: We need a president who will vacate all executive orders, memos, guidance issuances and every other misery Barack Obama put into place.

The new president needs to declaw the government agencies starting with the firing of the left-wingers fundamentally transforming us.

It’s in a way too late, but the nuclear deal needs to go. Treaty powers need to be restored and perhaps legislation needs to be passed that prevents these abuses by another Imperial President.

The military needs to be brought back up to par and the new president has to try to repair relations with allies and dump the communists and Fascists.

We need a president with an economic plan that doesn’t involve redistribution and over-investment in the exaggerated so-called science of climate change. We need to shrink the welfare state and get people back to work via the free market.

That is more than five but there are so many things wrong. Mostly we need a president who can restore our self-respect and unite us again. My concern isn’t what the socialists in the EU or what the fascists in the UN think of us, I care what we think of ourselves.

Puma By Design:

1. Illegal immigration

2. Rebuilding our Defenses, Military. Thanks to Barack Obama, who has weakened our defenses, those who would have thought twice about attacking us eight years ago, no longer fear or respect us.

3. Reigning in the government PERIOD. From overreach, regulations to spending

4. Jobs, jobs, jobs

5. Education – parental control. Let the parents make the decisions, not bureaucrats and unions.

JoshuaPundit: My issues are as follows… and I’m fully aware that few politicians will be honest enough to actually discuss them in real terms with voters.

First, we need actual reform on both legal and illegal migration. This issue affects many of the others. I see it as encompassing real control of our borders, both physically and legally, and a return to the realization that immigration is a privilege extended by a sovereign state, not a ‘right.’ The diversity visas need to be ended and simple points system evolved for legal migration that applies to everyone…and because of the abuses of the last 8 years, criteria for rescinding the green cards of those whom do not meet this criteria. Illegal migrants likewise need to be compelled to register so that individual cases can be evaluated and a decision made on their continued legal residence based on criteria such as crime records, knowledge of English, employment, family members or employers willingness to be guarantors so the illegal migrants do not become public charges, etc.

Abuse of the H1B visas that have kept wages static for years in many industries needs to be stopped, and all decisions on new immigration subject to the effect on American workers already here. To my knowledge, the only presidential candidates whom have addressed this sensibly are Mike Huckabee, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz and Jim Webb.

Second, we need major reform of the tax code and a downsizing of the IRS. The entire tax code, in my opinion, needs to be rewritten so that all Americans pay taxes. I favor a design that simplifies the laws substantially, provides for perhaps 3 brackets for both personal and corporate income taxes, eliminates most deductions and lowers rates. This approach would have enormous benefits.

The lower rates would actually increase revenues, as the increased money available to be spent or invested would generate other financial activity which could then be taxed. Most Americans whom work for wages wouldn’t even have to bother filing taxes, as they would be automatically deducted as they are now. Self employed persons could pay quarterly as many do now, simply providing 1099’s and a check, or those employed by corporations or doing work for hire like actors or musicians could have their taxes deducted by these corporations on their behalf.

A lowering of corporate taxation and a simplified tax code would also encourage domestic and (along with a genteel hint about possible tariffs) foreign investment. You would once again see good paying blue collar jobs in America, and a far better balance of trade. This is exactly what happened with Japan in the1980’s and is why many ‘Japanese’ cars are now built by American workers in places like Kentucky and Ohio.

Third, we need to revamp the Civil Service rules. It’s all very well to rant about Big Government and the elimination of whole departments, but while that kind of bolshoi is a nifty applause line, reality is a different matter. For one thing, our courts in their wisdom have ruled that government employees have a property right to their jobs and it costs a large amount of time and money to fire anyone. Massive layoffs result in decreased economic activity. While it might be nice to imagine that arrogant Uncivil Servant flipping burgers instead of sneering at you, the reality is that, multiplied by hundreds of thousands, his or her new salary as opposed to the $60K he or she used to make affects everybody’s bottom line. And the byzantine regs of the civil service rules with their minutiae of job classifications limits what jobs people may do and where they can be transferred.Change that, and you can transfer workers where they’re needed and gradually shut down or even change the mission of various government departments and gradually downsize government by attrition.

Fourth, we to deal with our youth and our culture. America is full of kids with no fathers and no future beyond immediate gratification or maybe lucking into a coveted corner to sell crack on. They have no skills and no jobs, and even more importantly, many of them have no clue how to behave if they did. We need a wide spread government program to get these kids out of their environment and into better things. For some of them, this might mean apprenticeship programs involving private industry or even the military to teach them a trade. For others, it might mean jobs combined with room and board working at building up America’s infrastructure, and things like helping to fight fires or similar projects. In all cases, part of the game would be instructing them in America’s history and culture and teaching them to take pride in it.

For the same reason, school choice is absolutely essential. So is eliminating public employee unions or at least open shopping them.

Fifth, we need a president who understands strategic thinking and our military. This year, the Army failed to meet its recruiting goals. After all, with the involuntary mass layoffs, unsafe recruiting stations, the VA scandals, the current war on Christianity, the PC uber alles atmosphere and the likes of Barack Hussein Obama as commander in chief, is it any wonder?

This all needs to change. It isn’t enough to simply rebuild our military in manpower and equipment. We need to rebuild our military culture.

We once had a Federal office known as the Director Of Civilian Marksmanship. His job? Working with the NRA and similar groups to ensure that America’s youth were taught gun safety and shooting skills. He also saw to it that surplus military rifles were sold and distributed to them, as well as to ROTC programs around the nation. This was back in the days when kids received that first .22 from Dad and early lessons on how to use it safely…back when Dad still lived at home.

The result was that kids learned early about respect for guns, and you didn’t see the mass shootings we have now. Plus, if America needed them, they were ready to go and a lot of them already knew how to shoot pretty well, I’d love to see that happen again, through the NRA and Jr. military programs like the Marine Corp’s Devil Pups. That’s how you rebuild a military culture.

For the past eight years, aside from having a president with little respect for our military except as props and photo-ops, we have also had one whom has been an utter failure at strategic thinking. What that means is that you nurture and support alliances in strategic areas and horse trade with the bad guys from a position of strength, not weakness. Or, as Ronald Reagan once said, “We win, they lose.”

Our next president will have to be someone like that – whether we like it or not.

Laura Rambeau Lee, Right Reason: The five most important issues to me in the coming election are, in order from fifth to first:

5. Budget

4. Reining in overreaching and unconstitutional regulatory agencies such as the EPA and the CFPB

3. National Defense

2. National Security, encompassing immigration and border protection

And the number one issue most important to me:

EDUCATION. It is imperative that we, as a people and nation, understand the damage already done by progressives who infiltrated our education system. It began in the 1960s at the university level, but today the indoctrination begins in pre-K and continues through elementary, middle, and high school. You see it in our youth who have already accepted the socialist doctrine as preferable to our republican form of government.

Ask Marion:

1. Stop Illegal immigration and securing the borders.

2. Repairing the U.S. economy which includes everything from nullifying illegal trade agreements to creating jobs, jobs, jobs…;

3. Help Americans believe in a future which includes a great America after rebuilding our military strength around the world.

4. Fixing American Healthcare with an actual plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare.

5. Overhaul the Education system and restore the power of parents, states and the U.S. Constitution.

Well, there you have it.

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Thank God Mr. Cruz is in Washington

By: Lloyd Marcus

Ted Cruz

My email account was on fire, everyone excited about Sen Ted Cruz calling Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell a liar on the Senate floor. Cruz cited each of Obama’s unprecedented unlawful power grabs and repeals of our freedoms that the GOP promised to block, only to stab us (We the People/Tea Party) in the back. http://bit.ly/1CZmZCj Immediately, I thought, “Thank God Ted Cruz is in Washington.”

Before I go on, I wish to address a guy whom I will call Ned. Whenever I praise a conservative, Ned emails to correct me, claiming the conservative is a deceitful traitor. When I share reasons for optimism, Ned vehemently disagrees, even seeming a bit angry that I would think our efforts could possibly make a difference in America’s corrupt political environment. Ned always sees the glass less than half empty. I guess we need people like Ned to keep us balanced. Although, I am not quite sure about that.

Sure enough, in response to patriots’ giving Cruz rave reviews for speaking truth to Washington power, Ned ripped into Cruz about questionable votes. Folks, I realize Ted Cruz is not perfect. But then, which presidential candidate is? Jesus is not running for president in 2016.

As a member of the Tea Party since it began, Cruz going down the list of GOP betrayals brought back memories. Remember how we fought and worked our butts off to give the GOP the House, then the Senate? We worked to elect Republicans to stop Obama from rolling out the welcome mat to illegals.

Over a million of us showed up in DC to protest Obamacare.

I thought of all the travel miles, funds, blood, sweat and tears sacrificed by Tea Party Americans; patriots who simply want lawful Constitutional government.

I thought about how Obama sent out his liberal mainstream media air force to bomb us with accusations of racism against the first black president; hoping to soften and diminish our ranks. The Tea Party is not racist, nor do we hate anybody.

In his speech, Cruz did two things that were quite remarkable. First – Cruz exposed the good-cop, bad-cop personal and corporate enrichment scam both parties have been playing on the American people. Second – Cruz spoke with unprecedented clarity. He did not say McConnell misspoke or McConnell was disingenuous. Cruz said McConnell lied.

Cruz has been on a roll speaking the truth, making mincemeat of Obama minions http://bit.ly/1GRt3Hy and Leftist ideologues. http://bit.ly/1Im0bbu He really exposes DC insider political corruption in his book, “A Time For Truth.”

It was refreshing that when pressed by the liberal bias media, Cruz refused to jump on the destroy Donald Trump bandwagon. This tells me that Cruz has backbone and will not automatically play by the Left’s rules of engagement.

It is fair game for GOP presidential contenders to express their disapproval of Trump’s style and tactics. However, when a GOP presidential contender joins the MSM in its evil attempt to brand Trump a racist for simply addressing illegal immigration, red flags go up regarding the character of that contender.

It tells me the contender will say whatever necessary to win. I call that “soulless” politicking.

Such behavior has the awful stench of what happened in Mississippi. In the primary, Republican Thad Cochran’s camp joined Democrats in branding the Tea Party racist. To beat the Tea Party conservative, Cochran’s people despicably made lying phone calls to black voters saying the Tea Party candidate would turn back the clock on racial progress. This is the kind of deplorable evil divisive totally self-serving politicking Cruz exposes in his book.

The GOP presidential field is rich with honorable contenders. I ask myself the following question.

When I lay my head on my pillow at night which candidate winning the WH will cause me to sleep the most peacefully? Who is most likely to remain true to their promises to We the People; fight to repeal Obamacare, end the invasion of our borders, defend life and traditional values?

Who believes in Conservatism enough to throw a lifeline of inspiration to those drowning in the treacherous deep dark sea of Obama’s welfare state America? Who will pray as the song says, “Lord lift us up where we belong” as Americans?

Currently, I believe that candidate is Sen Ted Cruz.

Realizing the fruitlessness of trying to instill a bit of hope/sunshine into Ned, I delete his emails without opening them. Ned has gotten creative. After lunch the waiter brought the check and my fortune cookie. The message inside said, “Ted Cruz sucks! – Ned” (Just kidding)

Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American
Chairman, Conservative Campaign Committee