Congress Moves Budget in Wrong Direction With Deficit-Financed Tax Cuts

Source: Concord Coalition



Washington, D.C. - October 28, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- The Concord Coalition said that fiscal policy has taken a very negative turn with adoption of the 2018 congressional budget resolution explicitly calling for deficit-financed tax cuts.

“In the face of a debt burden higher than at any time since the end of World War II and with annual deficits already projected to rise in the coming decades as retirement and health care spending steadily mounts with the long-foreseen aging of the population, President Trump and Republican congressional leaders are placing a huge bet that we can borrow our way to prosperity,” said Robert L. Bixby, Concord’s executive director. “Their enthusiastic embrace of a $1.5 trillion deficit-financed tax cut is risky business and deeply disappointing.”

The main purpose of any budget should be to set priorities and make the necessary trade-offs. This budget, which the House approved today, fails that test. Its main purpose is to cut taxes, not to make hard choices and cut the deficit.

If Republican leaders had wanted to cut the deficit while cutting taxes in a more responsible way they could have adopted the approach taken earlier by the House, which called for deficit-neutral tax reform and $200 billion of enforceable spending cuts. The Senate, however, removed these two provisions. What’s left is a combination of enforceable tax cuts, phantom spending cuts and an unrealistically rosy economic scenario.

“While justified by some as a way to grow the economy, the long-term effect of deficit-financed tax cuts would likely be to slow economic growth and make a bad long-term fiscal outlook even worse,” Bixby said.

There is still time, however, for elected officials to chart a more responsible path. The budget resolution is simply a blueprint. It is not legislation. As Congress and President Trump now begin to write a tax reform bill, The Concord Coalition urges them not to base their plan on the unlikely proposition that large tax cuts will pay for themselves.

Don Todd: The Dossier Is Not Opposition Research

Source: Americans for Limited Government



Americans for Limited Government Foundation President Don Todd today issued the following statement blasting the Hillary Clinton campaign and DNC-funded Fusion GPS-Christopher Steele dossier:

“I have been doing opposition research since 1978. My resume includes four Presidential campaigns, nearly one hundred Senate campaigns and a few Governor races. I was the oppo team leader in all of them. I can say with absolute certainty the so-called dossier is not opposition research it is raw political sewage for which the idiot Democrats may have paid over one hundred sixty thousand dollars a page. To call it oppo research is an insult to me and the many I have worked with over the years.

“Real political research is about issues that people care about not made up stories about bed peeing. Had I ever come up with such a document I am sure I would have summarily and rightfully fired.”

Read more:

“Hillary Clinton and the DNC funded the fake Trump-Russia collusion dossier, turned it into an FBI inquisition, surveillance and then attempted coup,” By Robert Romano, Oct. 26, 2017

ALL Praises GlaxoSmithKline for Manufacture of Ethical Shingles Vaccine

Source: American Life League



Washington, D.C. - October 28, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- American Life League joined with Children of God for Life in praising GlaxoSmithKline for producing an ethically sourced shingles vaccine that was just recently approved by the FDA for licensing in the US. Shingrix is produced using a yeast cell line. Previously, the only available shingles vaccine, Zostavax, used aborted fetal cells.

ALL president Judie Brown stated:

America's leading authority on ethical vaccines, Children of God for Life, issued a statement this morning that sounds a clarion call to one and all that there are such things as ethical vaccines and companies working to improve vaccines. The newest shingles vaccine, Shingrix, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline pharmaceutical company, does not employ the use of human embryonic cells and does—according to its own studies—maintain 90 percent efficacy in those 70 years of age and older who were involved in the clinical trials.

GSK's efforts to create an ethical vaccine for adults comes with a challenge to all other big pharma companies that have not met the call to manufacture similarly manufactured ethical vaccines not tainted with fetal cells from aborted babies. It can be done! We await the advent of additional vaccines that meet this standard.

Related News:

Moral Shingles Vaccine FDA Approved

ACLU COMMENT ON RELEASE OF TEXT OF BILL TO REAUTHORIZE WARRANTLESS SURVEILLANCE OF AMERICANS

Source: American Civil Liberties Union



Washington, D.C. - October 28, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- The Senate Intelligence Committee released the text of the bill that was voted on in a closed session to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the government to surveil Americans’ communications without a warrant and is set to expire at the end of the year.

The bill would reauthorize Section 702 for eight years, and it would authorize for the first time several of the government’s illegal practices — such as searching for information about people in the U.S., collecting domestic communications, and collecting communications that are neither to nor from a surveillance target. The bill lacks much-needed reforms to ensure that the government gets a warrant to search for information of people in the U.S., to end illegal practices that the NSA has used to collect domestic communications, and to ensure appropriate transparency.

Neema Singh Guliani, American Civil Liberties Union legislative counsel, had the following reaction:

“It's unacceptable that an issue of this magnitude was debated behind closed doors. We now know what mischief they were up to in secret. Not only did they fail to curb the litany abuses that have occurred in recent years, in many respects, the bill would expand existing surveillance authorities. Now that this language has seen the light of day, it is clear that this bill would further strip Americans of their constitutional rights.

“No president — including our current one — should have the authority to conduct large-scale warrantless surveillance of Americans. Such power leaves Americans vulnerable to illegal spying that improperly targets government critics, activists, journalists, and communities of color.”

American Bar Association Responds to AG Sessions comments criticizing judges

Source: American Bar Association



Washington, D.C. - October 28, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- The American Bar Association is alarmed by the remarks made Thursday by Attorney General Jeff Sessions about federal judges, accusing those he disagrees with of ruling on policy preference and not the law.

Ironically, Sessions complains that judges are not respecting the separation of powers and the concept of co-equal branches of government while at the same time himself disregarding the constitutional independence of the judicial branch.

Sessions said that “some judges have failed to respect our representatives in Congress and failed to appropriately respect the prerogatives and perspectives of the executive branch.” The judiciary rules on matters based on the laws and the Constitution. Their oath is “to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” and not to protect “the prerogatives and perspectives” of the executive branch.

The courts are an important part of the justice system. While criticism of judicial decisions is a constitutionally protected right of every American and embedded in our tradition of free and open discussion about government, judges should not be attacked or diminished by another branch of government just because they do not rule in its favor. Judicial independence is critical to maintaining the rule of law in our nation.

Go to www.abalegalfactcheck.com for the ABA’s new feature that cites case and statutory law and other legal precedents to distinguish legal fact from fiction.

With more than 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is one of the largest voluntary professional membership organizations in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.

Related News:

AG Sessions on Hawaii District Judge Remarks: ‘I Wasn’t Criticizing the Judge or the Island’

President Trump’s Declaration of Opioid Public Health Emergency Ignores Reality, Condemning More People to Death and Imprisonment in Name of the Drug War

Source: Drug Policy Alliance



Washington, D.C. - October 28, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- President Trump declared a public health emergency on the opioid overdose crisis. In a speech at the White House, Trump characterized the crisis as a “war” and outlined his administration’s plans to “defeat” it, including Reagan-era style “just say no” prevention campaigns and restrictions on opioid prescribing. He also touted drug courts, building a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, and other punitive approaches as solutions.

Advocates expressed concern that Trump’s approach to drugs ignores the facts about the causes of the opioid overdose crisis, stigmatizes immigrants, and doubles down on policies that have already proven not only ineffective, but devastating for people across the United States, particularly among communities of color.

The following is a statement by Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance:

“In the face of a devastating overdose crisis, President Donald Trump today made clear his strategy: to stick his head in the sand and point the finger at immigrants. While a couple of his proposals might help mitigate overdose, his speech today revealed a profound and reckless disregard for the realities about drugs and drug use in the United States. Trump seemed to be saying that prevention boils down to ads encouraging young people to "just say no" to drugs, ignoring the utter failure of that strategy when the Reagan administration started it in the 1980s. He made a big deal about completely taking a certain opioid off the market, even though the opioids involved in overdoses are mostly coming from the illicit market. He blamed immigrants for bringing drugs across the border, ignoring that immigrants are overwhelmingly more law-abiding than U.S. citizens, and that the illicit drug trade has always found ways to get around the walls and barriers the U.S. has put up to block it. He held up drug courts as a solution, ignoring all the evidence showing they do more harm than good. And he continued talking about criminal justice answers to a public health problem, even though the war on drugs is itself a major factor contributing to the overdose crisis. Trump had a chance to do something meaningful to help stem the tide of overdose deaths in the country; instead, he is condemning even more people to death, imprisonment, and deportation in the name of his war on drugs.”

ASAM Applauds President Trump For Taking Historic Step

Source: American Society of Addiction Medicine



Rockville, MD - October 28, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- President Donald J. Trump directed the declaration of a Nationwide Public Health Emergency to address the country’s opioid crisis. The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) applauds President Trump for taking this historic step. However, it’s critical for our nation to understand that opioid addiction is a chronic disease that leads to characteristic biological, psychological, and social manifestations, often requiring long-term treatment and support to address these components. As a result, this historic step must remain part of a longer march toward a day when all communities have been empowered to build a healthcare delivery infrastructure that can consistently deliver affordable, evidence-based addiction treatment to those in need. Corey Waller, MD, MS, FACEP, DFASAM, Chair of ASAM’s Legislative Advocacy Committee, had this to say about the President’s announcement:

“We hope the public health emergency declaration will lay the groundwork for long-term, systemic changes to our prevention and treatment delivery systems, as well as to our training programs for physicians and other health professionals. If we are truly going to turn the tide and prevent future crises related to substance misuse and addiction, then we must come together to make the investments required. ASAM will continue to work closely with the President, his administration, and Congress to broaden access to evidence-based addiction treatment and prevention programs that will profoundly improve the health and safety of all people.”

Executive Order Sets Path for Opioid Crisis Response

Source: American Association of Family Physicians



Washington, D.C. - October 28, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- This statement was released by the AAFP in response to Trump's Speech on the Opioid Crisis:

“The American Academy of Family Physicians welcomes the additional focus on the opioid crisis that has afflicted millions of Americans. By declaring a public health emergency, the Trump Administration has further drawn the nation’s attention toward this crisis and the need for a comprehensive and coordinated response. While we applaud this designation, we are concerned that the nation still lacks the necessary financial resources to truly combat this epidemic.

“A key mission of the AAFP is to protect the health of the public, and we are deeply aware of the critical and devastating problem of prescription drug misuse and the resulting deaths. Opioid misuse is destroying the fabric of the lives of too many of our patients, their families and their communities. At the same time, we must provide patients with adequate pain management. Chronic pain is a serious health issue with tremendous economic, social and medical costs.

“The dual goals of providing individualized and appropriate pain treatment while preventing opioid misuse underpin AAFP advocacy activities. We have called for policies that support preventive tactics such as the Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs that inform physicians about opioid prescriptions written by all health providers and alert them to potential prescription drug misuse.

“Family physicians also recognize the need to medically intervene when patients develop addiction disorders. The AAFP also has long been committed to expanding access to Medication Assisted Treatment by increasing the number of patients a physician can treat with buprenorphine hydrochloride and naloxone hydrochloride. Medication Assisted Treatment has been shown to be highly effective in treating opioid addiction.

“We appreciate the President’s commitment to the nation’s opioid crisis and we look forward to working with the Trump Administration to identify the funding necessary to support a comprehensive and meaningful response that ensures appropriate pain treatment, prevents misuse and responds effectively to addiction disorders.”

Georgetown derecognition of pro-family student club would be hypocrisy

Source: Alliance Defending Freedom



Washington, D.C. - October 28, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer regarding calls for Georgetown University, “the oldest Catholic and Jesuit institute of higher learning in the United States,” to derecognize student organization Love Saxa, represented by the ADF Center for Academic Freedom, because the student group holds to Catholic and Jesuit views of marriage:

“To call for the derecognition of a student organization at a Catholic university because it holds to Catholic views on marriage is preposterous. Love Saxa’s opponents haven’t called for the dissolution of the LGBTQ Resource Center, for example, even though it holds to views that conflict with Georgetown’s prohibition on groups whose purpose or activities are ‘inconsistent with acceptable conduct at an American university committed to the Roman Catholic moral tradition,’ yet they have targeted Love Saxa for views wholly consistent with the Catholic faith. It’s not enough that many of those who don’t hold to conservative religious or political views are seeking to silence those with whom they disagree on public university campuses and elsewhere in the public square. Now they are even seeking to silence them at private, religious universities, which are unquestionably free to recognize student clubs that adhere to the universities’ own founding values. Georgetown should act consistently with its own Catholic identity and reject any request for Love Saxa to be derecognized.”

Pronunciation guide: Langhofer (LANG’-hoff-ur)

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.

More on Approved Budget Resolution

Washington, D.C. - October 28, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- American Action Network’s Middle-Class Growth Initiative (MCGI), was launched in August to advocate for the passage of meaningful tax reform legislation. The multi-pronged effort, now totaling $14 million, includes advertising on television, radio, direct mail, and mobile billboards in over 50 congressional districts nationwide.

American Action Network (@AAN) Executive Director Corry Bliss released the following statement following the passage of the FY 2018 Budget Resolution:

“There is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make meaningful pro-growth tax reform a reality for hardworking Americans across the country. Thanks to the leadership in Congress, the vote to approve the budget resolution today was a vote to move tax reform forward. Now, it’s time for Congress to get to work, advance tax reform legislation, and give middle-class families the pay raise they deserve.”

Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) President Tom Schatz released the following statement:

“We applaud the House for clearing the way for tax reform by passing the Senate’s budget resolution. This action, as advocated by CCAGW and other taxpayer watchdogs, saves critical legislative time that will now be devoted to achieving the most groundbreaking tax reform in a generation.

“Taxpayers have toiled under a broken tax system for more than three decades. They should not have to wait one more day for Congress to act. The time has come to make the tax code pro-growth, pro-taxpayer, and pro-American.”

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.

National education groups representing superintendents, school boards, school business professionals, rural schools and communities, and educational service agencies issued the following statement in response to President Trump’s proposed elimination of the State and Local Tax Deduction (SALT).

“We believe any comprehensive tax reform must preserve the state and local tax (SALT) deduction as a matter of national priority. The SALT revenue is invested in local communities to fund vital needs including infrastructure, public safety, homeownership and public schools, which educate almost 90 percent of students in our country. Representing public education leaders entrusted with the important responsibility for educating students, we are deeply committed to ensuring students get the best possible education and support. Eliminating the SALT deduction endangers public education and our students’ future.

“State and local tax deductions ensure a stable local tax base that public schools rely on to educate students and provide needed services, such as health care and related needs. The current proposal to eliminate the SALT deduction as part of broader tax reform would cripple this ability and damage state and local economies.