REFLECTIONS ON THE LANKFORD - SCARBOROUGH MEETING

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ REFLECTIONS ON THE LANKFORD - SCARBOROUGH MEETING
++ U.S. CREDIT RISK - BUDGET CUTS - REBUILDING THE ECONOMY
++ TIDBITS


++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, April 24th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, normally addressed as 4801 North Lincoln in
OKC. However, out of respect for the majority of American Indians who
fought on the side of the South in the War for Southern Independence
(improperly called a civil war) I am going to take the liberty to
rename Lincoln Blvd for just one day and call it the JEFFERSON DAVIS
CONFEDERATE BLVD. How’s that for causing myself a lot of trouble right
from the start?

Our first Speaker this Wednesday will be a Washington attorney by the
name of Michael Hoehn (pronounced Hane). Mr. Hoehn is the Executive
Director of the Alliance For Vigilance, a non profit organization
designed, in part, to educate the public about the threat posed by
militant Islam. Michael will be presenting his full program at several
other locations, see announcements.

Occurring this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, April 29th through May
1st, the largest battle re-enactment in Oklahoma history will occur
between Northern and Southern re-enactors in what is now the state of
Oklahoma. The location will be at the Honey Springs battle field, just
a few miles North of Checotah. The first official shots to start the
war for Southern Independence occurred on April 12th, 1861 When the
South open fired upon Union troops stationed at Fort Sumter, South
Carolina. The battle of Honey Springs occurred on a rainy day, July
17th, 1863. The re-enactment has been moved to the above date to avoid
the extreme heat of July so more re-enactors and visitors can attend.
An expected 5,000 re-enactors will come to Oklahoma to participate
with additional thousands attending to watch and learn.

The year 2011 is the Sesquicentennial (150th) year to recognize and
remember the most bloody war to ever be fought by the citizens and
former citizens, of America. I wanted to have a program about this
issue, just before the historical re-enactment, so our main speaker
this week will be a pastor-evangelist-author from Elk City by the name
of Jerry Brewer.

While I personally believe slavery was a huge issue in the cause of
the war, there were many other issues in the complex situation which
led to the Southern States succeeding and the subsequent war that
ensued. Mr. Brewer will speak to many of those issues as well as some
of the fall-out caused by the Northern victory, some of which has
tremendous ramifications upon us to this very day. Please don’t miss
this meeting, the information will be sure to challenge some of our
thought processes and hopefully make people think deeply.

Hopefully we will see that slavery is still with us, it just has a
different manifestation to it today. Slavery to the tyranny of the
federal government as well as political correctness, the loss of
states rights and ultimately our liberties has made all of us slaves
to one degree or another.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

MICHAEL HOEHN WILL PRESENT HIS FULL PROGRAM AT THE FOLLOWING:

* WEDNESDAY EVENING - Trinity Baptist Church in Yukon. I am not
sure of the time so you may want to call during business hours (405)
354-4839 for that information.

* THURSDAY EVENING - The Edmond Library, one block North of 2nd
street on Boulevard. The meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m.

* FRIDAY AT NOON - Michael will be speaking at the High Noon Club
located inside H&H Range, which is on the North side of I-40 and about
2 blocks East of Meridian.

++ REFLECTIONS ON THE LANKFORD - SCARBOROUGH MEETING

I want to say thanks to U.S. Representative James Lankford for coming
to speak at our meeting last Wednesday. I received a call from his
office last Monday informing me that he would have to leave at 12:30
sharp to catch the end of another luncheon regarding the bombing of
the Murah building. Fortunately we had Rick Scarborough (founder of
the national organization, Vision America) in town, so he began
speaking shortly after Congressman Lankford left.

FIRST, it is obvious that James is very bright, a fast study and
perhaps his strong point is an ability to grasp a situation and
communicate his understanding to others in such a way that can be
easily understood. Before taking questions he talked about the $38
billion budget cut which is part of this year’s budget which ends on
September 30th. Then his discussion shifted to explaining Congressman
Paul Ryan’s proposed budget reforms designed to make significant
reductions in spending as well as reform entitlements such as Social
Security and Medicare.

One of the provisions in Congressman Ryan’s bill is the proposed
Medicare reform which will see future (for people 55 and below)
Medicare costs shift from paying bills, to providing resources for
people to purchase insurance type coverage. The proposal has a
provision for “means testing”, or in other words, for wealthy people
to receive less resources and the poor to receive more resources.

During the brief Q&A time Mr. Scarborough raised his hand but we just
didn’t have time to get everyone’s questions in. As Rick began to
speak he told about a recent meeting where he and about 40 other
conservative leaders were invited to Washington by Speaker Boehner to
meet some of the new freshmen lawmakers. One of those new lawmakers
was Freshman Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) who Rick described as a
rising rock star. However, in Senator Rand’s brief presentation, he
lauded the prospects of means testing for a solution to the Medicare
problems.

Following the parade of new lawmakers, Rick posed a question to the
other leaders. He explained that means testing is classical Marxism
and asked the others in the room if it bothered them that “our
guys” (the conservatives) were the ones proposing and lauding that
idea? Only Joseph Farah, from World Net Daily spoke up and re-enforced
what Rick was saying. Rick said that most of the others in attendance
appeared to be like a deer in the headlights as such a thought.

Mr. Scarborough is absolutely correct about means testing being pure
Marxism. It is simply a different application, a little different but
much like unto the graduated income tax. Now please pay close
attention to what I am about to say. As few of those conservative
leaders seemed to understand that problem, can you imagine where the
majority of the American public is on this issue? America’s enemies
from within are already attacking the proposed changes, not because it
is classic Marxism, but because they want more socialism, more re-
distribution of wealth, more of one person using government to steal
from their neighbors, not less.

Those are the severe problems Congressmen Lankford and the Republicans
face in making changes when so many Americans are greedy and
unprincipled, ignorant of basic economics and business principles.
Many are completely ignorant of the impending financial danger
threatening this nation. They suck down information from liberals who
tell them things are fine, there are no problems, don’t listen to
“Republican” scare tactics and as such turn a deaf ear toward
information from conservatives.

That is why Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society, tried to
warn American’s when Medicare was being made law that it would someday
bring financial ruin upon our nation. He warned that socialized
medicine is the “archway” to converting our nation into a full blown
socialist state. There is a better way than socialized medicine, but
far too few people have a clue as to what that might be.

SECOND, one of the guests at our meeting brought up the situation
where it has recently been reported that General Electric (GE) made
billions in profits last year but paid no corporate income taxes. His
question to James was about what measures Congress might take to
correct that problem and perhaps, capture some of what was not paid?
James was quick to say that most people in the room understand that
corporations don’t pay taxes, but rather include the costs of taxes
into the prices of the goods or services they produce.

Let me caution conservatives to not let the flashy headlines in papers
or the talking heads on the boob-tube to get us off track. While at
first glance it seems unfair or unjust for such a BIG corporation to
get by without paying any corporate income tax, we must not fall for
the bait.

One change that America really needs to make is a policy change where
we actually put NO income taxes on businesses. In doing so, it will
lower the cost of doing business in America, make our goods and
services more competitive in a global market, bring jobs back to
America, improve our economy and in turn improve our annual deficit/
national debt problems. In the next section below, I am going to try
and label our major problems and what we need to do to correct the
economics problem.

++ U.S. CREDIT RISK - BUDGET CUTS - REBUILDING THE ECONOMY

Last week, Moody’s issued the U.S. a warning that they have changed
our outlook from positive to a place of risk. However, Moody’s kept
our bond rating at “triple A”, which in my opinion is a sham and
another example as to why our bond rating system has lost virtually
all credibility. You don’t place a triple A rating on any entity that
is bankrupt. It dawned on me about 5 to 7 years ago that America is
already bankrupt and what has occurred between then and now has only
made that bankrupt condition more evident.

Our good friend Russ Reinhardt recently asked for my definition of a
person or entity being bankrupt. My answer was, when there was no
valid expectation that a person or entity’s debt will ever be paid
back!

Therefore, let me ask you the readers, is there anyone out there who
really believes we will ever re-pay our $14.3 TRILLION (and rapidly
rising) national debt with anything other than freshly printed
dollars, worthless as they will be? I would say we have a 10% or less
chance of EVER paying that debt off. That is why I believe America is
bankrupt.

It is not that we can’t pay it off, it is likely to never happen
because it will be so very hard to get the American people to set a
reasonable course to accomplish such and then put up with the pain and
suffering to get it done. In the mean time, let me suggest that the
FORMERLY safest investments in the world (U.S. Government backed bonds
and securities) are no longer safe and ANY investments into such are
at your own risk, especially any long term U.S. government bonds or
securities.

One can never solve a problem until its cause is accurately recognized
and a viable plan is crafted, then the plan has to be implemented. I
did financial counseling for close to 20 years. Not investment
counseling, but budgeting and debt resolution help for people in
trouble. When it comes to financial problems, let me suggest there are
ONLY 3 possible solutions other than a bankruptcy judgment. 1) Bring
in a sufficient increase in income without increasing spending. 2)
Bring in the same amount of income, but cut a sufficient amount of
spending. 3) Do some combination of 1 and 2. It does not matter the
scale, it does not matter how small or large the problem, the answer
lies in one of those 3 solutions.

* IDENTIFYING AMERICA’S FOUR MAIN PROBLEMS

1) This will be hard for unbelievers and pragmatists to understand or
believe, but the number one problem in America today is that we have
broken our covenant with God which was first espoused within the
Mayflower Compact. Rather than having God’s hand of blessing upon us
today, I believe the sins of those who profess to be His and the
abandonment of the principles upon which this nation was founded has
now brought God’s discipline and judgment upon us. Even so, that
discipline is meant to cause us to repent rather than to totally
destroy us. Our utter destruction may soon come, but I am convinced
God is willing to give us more opportunity, if we will repent.

2) The primary and secondary schools in America are full of rot and
misinformation. They are not public, bur rather government schools,
under the influence of humanistic progressives, fascists and
socialists. Many private Christian schools are little more than the
same, but with some Bible reading or prayer. As far as the academic,
moral and spiritual condition of our government universities, they are
also full of rot. In addition, a good number of private centers of
higher education are little or no better. Especially many of the more
prestigious institutions of higher learning in the Northeast.

3) We have failed to secure our borders which has allowed for a
massive invasion of illegal aliens from many parts of the world. In
addition, our legal immigration policies have been too liberal,
allowing too many people, some from countries and cultures that make
assimilation very hard if not impossible, to immigrate to this country
without sufficient time to assimilate into society. We have allowed
for the balkanization of our country with many enclaves of sub-groups
who do not speak English and have no interest or intention of becoming
an American.

4) America is no longer business friendly or economically
responsible. We now have the highest corporate income tax of any
industrialized nation in the world with a top rate of 35%. Also,
regulations upon businesses are over the top and in addition, we have
a huge organized labor problem in America. Therefore, we have lost
thousands of businesses and millions of jobs to other countries. I
believe our economy is not likely to ever fully recover is we don’t
find a way to re-capture those businesses and jobs. We must re-capture
our lost manufacturing base for us to again become a wealth producing
nation.

THE FOLLOWING WILL BE A CLOSER LOOK AT NUMBER 4.

Right now, responsible citizens are more focused upon cutting the
budget than anything else. I was strongly in favor of a government
shutdown if the $60 billion dollar spending cuts weren’t agreed to by
Democrats. However, I am opposed to not extending the debt ceiling,
other than for a very short period of time and only then as bargaining
power to reduce more spending.

The reason is simple. Our economy has been propped up for the past 8
or 10 years with varying amounts of deficit spending. In the last 3
years the deficits has averaged over a Trillion dollars each year,
with last year being $1.65 Trillion alone. This year’s deficit will be
similar, which means if we shut off any additional borrowing then an
average of $140 billion each month will not be going into the
economy.

With the exception of what is spent overseas, virtually all of that
money ends up in the hands of the people in our nation. It ends up in
the hands of the poor, the middle class and the wealthy. Missing that
money for just one or two months will slow the economy and after just
a few months it will cause a severe recession or depression.

It is kind of like being in an airplane and you want to land. You can
come in at an angle to achieve what is called a soft landing or come
strait down with disastrous results. The later is swift and harsh, the
former takes time, skill and patience to accomplish.

This is very important to understand. At the same time we are trying
to reduce excess spending, we need to be looking at ways to create an
environment in which business can succeed, grow and employee ever more
people.

While the federal government is reducing its spending, it also needs
to have additional revenues come into the treasurery. Increasing taxes
might work for a while, but it is really risky for an economy just
recovering from a recession. Reducing taxes (while at the same time
increasing spending) has worked in the past to bring more revenues to
the treasury. While I do believe we should eliminate business taxes,
there does come a point at which reducing taxes will no longer
increase revenues going to Washington.

May I suggest having more people pay taxes (nearly 50% of all adults
pay no income taxes) would be a wonderful way to increase the revenues
(remember we are to be reducing spending at the same time). If the
economy continues to improve and unemployment continues to drop, the
government will have more taxpayers. Another way to have more
taxpayers would be to scale back some of the EXEMPTIONS. Reducing
individual deductions, child tax credits, earned income tax credits
and etc. would mean more people would become taxpayers. Please don’t
anyone show your ignorance by telling me doing such would be a “tax
increase”. While reducing exemptions will increase the amount of tax
dollars going to Washington, that is not a tax increase if the rates
stay the same.

All of those ideas are inferior to one change which will solve many of
the problems we are facing. If we were to adopt the Fair Tax (it now
has the largest number of co-sponsors ever) it would make EVERYONE a
direct or indirect taxpayer. Because of the “pre-bate” the very poor
receive a check large enough to pay the taxes on necessities such a
food and clothing. The pre-bate is based on the number of people in a
household, not income, and as such the wealthy receive the same amount
of pre-bate based on the number of people in their household. That
makes it fair for all.

The Fair Tax is revenue neutral as it shifts taxation off of the
productive side of the economy and onto the consumptive side.
Businesses will not be taxed and as such that will allow for the cost
of producing goods and services to be reduced, thus making “American
made” more competitive on a global market. By no longer taxing
production (businesses), jobs and capitol will come rushing back into
America.

As an added bonus, by shifting to a national sales tax and dropping
all income taxes, businesses and people will no longer have to spend
money and waste time on compliance (it is estimated businesses spend
$300 to $500 billion in wasted overhead each year in just trying to
figure and comply with tax laws). This change will further reduce the
cost of producing goods and services. More jobs will mean more taxes
going into Washington and at the same time we will be reducing
spending. Therefore, we would then begin to move toward a balanced
budget.

Once we achieve a balanced budget, we then start working on paying
down our debt. Senator Coburn is taking flack for proposing some tax
increases. While I oppose all the plans currently on the table, I
would support increasing the Fair Tax by one or two cents once we get
the budget balanced and federal spending back into its Constitutional
functions. Of course that increase would have to be used ONLY for debt
reduction. As we reduce our debt, the amount of interest paid on our
debt would decrease and that would be another reduction in spending.
Once we eliminate our national debt, we could then begin to ratchet
down the level of the national sales taxes until it reaches an amount
required to support the federal government performing its proper
functions.

Switching to the Fair Tax solves a lot, but not all of our problems.
It’s main objectors are politicians who will lose a significant amount
of power and control over the people and lobbyists who will lose their
jobs.

Now, on to solving labor problems. When organized labor in the PRIVATE
sector becomes too effective at extorting money from business, those
jobs are destroyed. The business either ceases operations or it moves
to another nation. Look at some of the Oklahoma manufacturing jobs
lost over the past 20 years, General Motors, Zebco, Lucent, Gulf
Stream, Dayton Tire and the list goes on. They were all unionized
businesses. While I believe unions should be illegal in the public
sector, I do believe they should be legal in the private sector. Hear
is the problem, over the years Congress got involved and passed many
laws which put requirements on relations between management and labor.
Those laws strongly favor labor and as such have created a problem.

All laws regulating negotiations between labor and management should
be repealed. That way the term “bargaining in good faith” will be
relegated into the ash heap of history and labor and management can
then work out their differences on their own. Labor is vital to
business, but when labor thinks too highly of itself and its value to
management, then management needs to be free to replace its labor
force.

Now, for solving the problems of excessive regulations. Regulatory
agencies such as OSHA, EEOC, EPA, FISH AND WILDLIFE and others have
become real problems when common sense is thrown out the window and
legalistic bean counters impose oppressive and ridiculous regulations
upon businesses.

All of these agencies have come about to solve some kind of problem,
but often the solution becomes a bigger problem than the original
problem. The only solution I know is common sense and wisdom to be
used in citizen oversight boards which should be commissioned for an
appeals process to rule in cases where over regulation occurs. I do
believe reasonable regulations are needed in society and as such I am
open to other ideas.

However, not to recognize the problems with over regulation would be a
mistake toward creating a business friendly environment. One thing is
for sure, most of regulatory powers should come from the states and
not the federal government.

If we properly address these 3 areas, our economy will boom and our
prosperity will increase, not decrease.

++ TIDBITS

* WHY PAUL RYAN COMES TO OKLAHOMA AND WHAT HE DOES! - Paul Ryan is
married to Janna Little Ryan, Daughter of Dan Little who also happens
to be a law partner of Lynn Windel, the former Republican National
Committee man who did an excellent job representing Oklahoma for many
years at the RNC. Congressman Ryan comes a couple times each year to
visit the in-laws and experience some hunting, Oklahoma style.

However, the story doesn’t end with that. His father in law, Dan
Little was the brother of David Boren’s first wife (Janna) and as
such, the mother of Congressman Dan Boren. So Ryan’s wife and
Congressman Dan Boren are first cousins. Here is where it gets
interesting. Last year there were rumors that Paul Ryan, a member of
the National Republican Congressional Committee, somehow intervened to
keep the committee from supporting Charles Thompson, Boren’s
Republican opponent.

It is true the Committee didn’t get involved in that race, but it
could just as easily have been because Charles couldn’t raise a
minimum level of support (supposedly $100,000) on his own before they
would get involved. I don’t know if the rumors are valid or not, but
one thing is now evident.

Congressman Boren recently voted AGAINST Congressman Ryan’s proposed
budget, so going forward there should not be any reason for Ryan or
any other Republican to do anything other than hope to see Boren
defeated. Last year, the Republican party had candidates in every
state wide race and all but Senator Inhofe and Congressman Cole were
on the ballot. Next year, the party should focus on defeating Boren. I
hope Charles, who garnered 45% of the vote on virtually no funds, will
run again and if others also run, may the most conservative candidate
with the ability to be viable win the nomination. At that point,
Republicans need to focus on that race to make sure Boren doesn’t go
back to Washington.

* EAT MORE CHICKEN - CHICK FILET BUYCOT - While many Chick-Filet
stores are owned by a local franchise owner, the corporation was
founded by a gentleman by the name of Stuart Cathy. He is a dedicated
Christian and supports many pro-family organizations. His support of
traditional marriage has inflamed some of our nation’s radical
homosexuals. They are calling for a boycott of all Chick-Filet stores.
Therefore, the American Family Association (AFA) has organized a
BUYcot for Chick-Filet stores during the week of April 25th through
the 30th.

The AFA is asking Christians to have a meal or two this week at a
Chick-Filet and be sure to tell store employees how much you
appreciate their company taking a stand for moral values. The stores
make a concerted effort to employee Christians and they do a good job
of training so that employees are friendly to customers and efficient
at their jobs. Don’t bother trying to visit on a Sunday, they are
closed to honor the Lord and allow their employees to attend church
services on Sundays.

* ACTION ITEM - This is very important. Please contact your State
Representative immediately and ask him or her to vote NO on the
committee substitute to SB 602. If passed, the committee substitute
would eliminate run-off elections which is a very bad idea for the
citizens of Oklahoma.

You should know your state Representative by now and the contact
information. If not, log on to http://www.oklegislature.gov/ and look
for the words “Find My Legislator” at the bottom right corner of the
homepage. Enter your address information and hit the search button.
This will take you to another page, then scroll down to the bottom and
it will have your lawmaker’s contact information. If you want to call,
the House switch board is (405) 521-2711, just give the operator the
name of your lawmaker and you will be put through to the office.

* REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION - ONE WEEK FROM SATURDAY - This
year’s Republican state convention will be held in Oklahoma City on
Saturday, May the 7th. If you were not able to attend your precinct
meeting or county convention but would like to become a delegate to
the convention it may not be too late. Call your newly elected county
chairman who has the authority to allow you to attend. Ask if you can
become a delegate?

* ARTICLES IN THE OKLAHOMA GAZETTE - I was called last week by
Clifton Adcock for an interview about some of the struggles going on
in the Republican party and my perspective on this year’s legislative
performance. I don’t know if that article will run in this week’s
paper or not, but I was also contacted by the editor of the paper to
see if I would do an article in the point - counter point section of
the paper. I believe those two articles will run in this week’s issue
of the Gazette and yes, I still pronounce it the “Gay-Zette”. You can
pick them up at a favorite restaurant in the metro area if you want to
give it a read.

* OKC MAFIA ABOUT TO STRIKE AGAIN - Now that the Oklahoma City
Council elections are over, it appears that the “good ole boys” are
ready to get on with business as usual, but with a new twist. There is
a proposal to create a non-profit economic development group and have
the city turn much of their efforts over to that group. That way, the
non profit will not be subject to open records requests like the city
happens to be and thus deals can be made quietly and out of sight of
the public. Newly elected councilman, Dr. Ed Shadid, is threatening to
request an Attorney General’s opinion as to the legality of having a
non-profit organization with the ability to spend tax-payers money?
Hopefully that will stop their plans, as there probably is not enough
opposition on the council to keep some of city government from being
conducted in the back rooms.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com