Decaying of America “Part III”- Illegal Immigrants

You will hear it argued, especially by the Democrats and Liberals, that illegal immigration are good, not bad for our country.  They tell you that the jobs the illegals take are jobs Americans will not do.  That simply is not true.  The jobs illegal takes are usually job’s that Americans without a high school diploma or no college would take.  The problem is illegal immigrants will work for far less pay than Americans bringing down the pay scale employers are willing to pay.  We presently have the highest percentage of American’s finishing high school than ever in modern times.  Ninety percent of American’s between the age of 25 and 45 have a high school diploma.  That still leaves 10 percent of working Americans without a high school diploma, That is millions of Americans. If these millions of Americans cannot find work they will go on welfare and other government assistance programs which cost the government. Another problem the illegal immigrants create is they take jobs from students who need to earn money to pay for tuition. In my opinion it does affect the U.S. Government negatively. 

In 2014 there were more than 12 million undocumented workers in America that we knew about, many more that we did not know about. The ones we do not know about makes it difficult to determine the real overall effect on America.  People born in the U.S. into low income families are the hardest hit by illegal immigrants.  They lack education, work skills and money. These people are willing to take janitor jobs and similar jobs. If you go to downtown Houston any night of the week after 10 p.m. you will think you are in Mexico. That’s the time janitors start to finish their tour of duty. 

Most illegal immigrants are low skill workers. Can you please tell me how low skilled workers, from a different culture, speaking a different language, are not familiar with our laws and less productive, benefits our economy? Now those that want to argue they work harder than Americans think about the time spent on instructing them to do a job when there is a language barrier.  Do you think that these low skilled immigrants are trained to use the modern equipment we have in America?  In my opinion the greatest harm they do to our American workforce is they bring down the pay scale.  Few know that illegal immigrants qualify for workers’ compensation if hurt on the job. They do not qualify for unemployment insurance. 

You will be told by Democrats and Liberals illegal immigrants do not cost the government anything.  They will tell you illegal immigrants are not entitle to any benefit programs paid for by the Federal or State Governments.  Since 1982, states are required to provide K-12 public education for students with illegal status.  Who pays this expense - local school districts? Local school districts must set aside 15% of their budget for illegal immigrant students.  The local school districts must provide Spanish speaking teachers which are paid more than regular teachers. They must provide special education classes for disable children.  They must provide federal breakfast and lunch programs.  If needed illegal immigrant students must be referred to appropriate institutions for dental, mental, health and other issues. The government pays for these services. We do no pay for American students to get the same services.  There are more than 840,000 illegal immigrant children going to school according to the last data the government has.

Illegal immigrants do not qualify for Medicaid, UNLESS the woman is pregnant or the situation is considered by medical staff to be an emergency.  But, six states and the District of Columbia ignore this federal law and grant Medicaid to illegal immigrants. Politicians claim we do no pay for health care benefits because they do not qualify for them, but Americans shelled out 18.5 billion in 2016 for illegal immigrant health care. They can also go to community health clinics and be treated for free.  The part the federal government paid of the 18.5 billion amounts to $34 for every US taxpayer. Now our politicians say that amount is so small it is not worth fighting over and it is a humanitarian gesture.  Illegal immigrants are eligible for the federal governments W.I.C. programs.  This programs provides food, infant formula, and immunization for babies. 

Even though illegal immigrants are not considered eligible for any state welfare benefits, some states give it to them anyway. The one that determines who gets state benefits is the county social services. They do not have legal jurisdiction to do it nor are they qualified to determine immigration status. Democrats and Liberals still argue  illegal immigrants do not affect America in a negative way, instead they argue it has a positive effect on America.  Immigrants granted asylum are qualified for all federal and state benefits.  Do you remember when Obama wanted to flood American with immigrants seeking asylum.   

Some states have chosen to ignore federal law because they say illegal immigrants pay about $12 billion in state, local and federal taxes per year and receive only about $5 billion in benefits. Another government agency claims they pay about $10.6 billion in taxes. The C.B.O. claims if we increase the number of illegal immigrants we would collect $48 billion over a decade.  Do you notice the big discrepancies?  Who really knows? Remember now illegal immigrants cost Americans nothing and the majority file federal tax returns – I find that hard to believe.

It is possible for illegal immigrants to buy a house without a social security card. The lending institutions get them what is called an identification number (ITIN).  They can also pay cash and do not need any documents.  Let an American try to purchase a home without a social security card. 

In the Philippines and many other countries foreigners cannot own land.  The Philippines does allow foreigners to own a condo, but they cannot own the land the condo is built on and 40% of condo owners in the building must be Filipino.  If a foreigner is married to a Filipino the land will always go to the Filipino and at death it will go to the heirs of the Filipino that are natural born Filipinos.  In the Philippines it is nearly impossible to get a work permit.  To own a small business you have to employ a minimum of ten Filipinos.  Large corporation like Ford and others must  allow a Filipino to own at least 40% of the Philippine operation.  If people think U.S. immigration laws are tough, they should check the immigration laws in other countries, especially third world countries. 

Now one thing I agree with the Democrats and Liberals on is many illegal immigrants use false social security cards to get jobs.  They usually use the numbers of dead people are infants, those not paying into Social Security.  They cannot ever draw that money out, so it does increase the funds in Social Security.  The money paid in by illegal migrants is about $100 billion over ten years according to SSA.  Since about 1937 the SSA has kept a suspense file of social security payments that cannot be matched to legitimate claimants.  They estimate about 3 million files fall into that category.  Hillary Clinton, Democrats and Liberals say that that it is not fair for us to keep their money. They want the law changed where they do not pay social security at all or can draw a social security benefits upon retirement.  The employer pays half of the social security tax and the employee pays half.  Don’t you think if a law was passed that illegal immigrants did no have to pay social security the employers are going to take advantage of it. They would not be hiring Americans if they could fine illegals to do the job.

The proposals that President Trump is talking about are the exact laws that President Clinton got passed in 1996.  Now President Trump wants to enforce those laws and the Democrats and Liberals are all up in arms. They say illegal immigrants should receive the exact benefits as American citizens because America's uneducated poor citizens do not contribute to the country as much as illegal immigrants.

Do you think we need a border wall? Hillary Clinton, Democrats and Liberals say we don't.  They claim it would weaken the U.S. economy.  They claim open borders improves a countries economy.  They claim with  open borders we could give all immigrants full participation in our government and we would collect more taxes. They are already pushing for illegal immigrants to have the right to vote.  Frankly, I do not want anyone that is not a citizen of the U.S. voting in our elections.  Why should they have a say on who leads our country. California already allows them to vote on school board members.  They also say better skill workers would come if we had open borders.

Is 18 billion too much to pay for a wall?  I believe the wall would pay for itself if it reduced illegal immigrant entry.  President Bush constructed a wall in El Paso, Texas and I did not hear anyone complaining.  Federal data shows that walls do work.  Where Bush constructed the wall, illegal immigration decreased by 89% over a five-year period.  Homeland Security say 1.7 million more illegal immigrants will enter from Mexico in the next ten years if a wall is not constructed.  The I.R.S. pays out billions of dollars each year for child tax credits to illegal immigrants.  The Dreamers Amnesty Act has cost $26 billion the first ten years. These two government illegal immigrant benefits would pay for most of the wall.

The latest U.S. Census Bureau’s count said 62% of illegal immigrant head of household are on the federal dole.  More than double that of American head of household.  Surprisingly the benefits they are not supposed to be getting are the ones they use the most - Food Stamps and Medicaid.  They obtain them through fraud, administrative errors and green card holders.

President Trump often speaks of illegal immigrant crimes.  It has upset four universities so much they have completed a study and claim illegal immigrants do not increase crime rate.  They claim the crime rate for undocumented immigrants shows immigrants commit less crimes than American’s.  I believe there are far more American than illegal immigrants in America so I would expect more crimes would be committed by Americans.  They stated those that say different are racist. Now government federal records say 26% of prisoners in federal prison are illegal immigrants.  The records show 146,243 illegal immigrants  make up the population in state prisons. I suppose if you compare it to the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. the number is not staggering, but who is paying to lodge, guard, feed, clothe and provide health care for these illegal immigrants?  American's of course.  They did not mention the damages done by the illegal to Americans.

One thing is certain illegal immigrants are increasing tension in our country. Some citizens say deport them and other say let them stay and welcome them into our communities.  That is what the Sanctuary Cities are doing. I believe Sanctuary Cities are a violation of Federal Law and I was taught federal law supersedes state law.   

In closing I want to share a list that Democrats and Liberals say that makes illegal immigrants important to America: we are culturally enriched; employers have a ready supply of cheap labor; employers do not have to report them to the government in turn companies save on taxes; employers do not have to provide job benefits, which allows products to be produced cheaper and  consumers can purchase their products cheaper; wealthy American’s and upper middle class have access to affordable labor for jobs around the house, such as child care, cooking, cleaning, drivers, etc. and to care for elderly sick parents.  They also say it is another type of international aid to poor countries.  Am I the only one that read that list and did not find anything that helped middle class or the poor?  It seems to me Democrat politicians are only looking out for themselves and their rich friend.  Do not forget that during the last campaign Democrats harped Republicans are only interested in the top  1% of Americans.   It also appears to me Democrats and Liberal do not respect the law of the land too much and are encouraging people to disobey our laws.

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WILL YOU HAVE REGRETS WHEN YOU GROW OLD?

 I recently saw an article asking the same question and I immediately said NO.  Of course I am already OLD, but people have ask me would I do anything different if I could go back in time or if I had any regrets about the decisions I made in the past and I always said NO.  I have had a blessed life and although I had many struggles in my life with the help of God I got through them and think the struggles made me a stronger person. 

After reading the article I realized I do have some doubts about some decisions I made, but I do not know if I could really classify them as regrets.  I recently was sent a small quote, “Sometimes you have to be hard.”  I found that difficult to do.  You see no one help me with one penny of my education, no one help me start a business, no one has ever been at my side, except God.  He was my shadow and the only one I could ever turn to.  My dad died when I was a teenager and from that time until I made it on my own it has been a struggle.  We went from the good life to poverty in a matter of months. 

I have always reached out to help others so they would not have to experience the things I went through and have been burned over and over again.  My best friend constantly ask me, “Father, why do you do it?”  I have helped various members of his family and he has always said, “Father, you are making a big mistake.  They will not appreciate the help and they will use you not the opportunity you gave them to get ahead.”  He was right every time.  The more you give the more they want.  You give them opportunities to get out of poverty and they are not willing to do what is necessary to accomplish the task.  They would prefer you just give them money every week.  Now if I have regrets this would be a significant one.  You can lead the horse to water, but you cannot make the horse drink.  I have a hard time putting that into practice.

I also came to realize how much I had worried about the welfare of others.  I felt an obligation to fix everything and try to make life better for others.  I was worrying about someone else problems and that is foolish.  I was trying to fix others life and neglecting my own.  Worry is never a solution to anything.  Most of the things we worry about will never happen in the first place.  Worry is a waste of time and only contributes to your stress.  

I was not one who was afraid to take risk.  Many Senior Citizens in the survey put that as the number two thing they regretted.  I always preferred taking a risk rather than later thinking ‘I should have’.  I have never been afraid to fail because I always knew I could try again.  I have never wondered if I would have done this what would life be like today.  My advice to young people is – TAKE THE CHANCE.  It is foolish to try and talk yourself out of trying new things. I am not speaking of drugs or alcohol or improper sex that can destroy you or others. If you want to go to Europe, do it! If you want to start a business, do it! But, always do your research before you do it.  Getting into your thirties with a long string of regrets will haunt you all your life. 

The survey found that 76% of Senior Citizens regretted not following their dream.  I do not have any ‘should of’ or ‘ought of’ in my past.  I knew I wanted to be a minister and an entrepreneur.  I was told a thousand times you have to choose one or the other.  I did not settle for one or the other - I had both.  God made it all possible.  My first business was presented to me and I saw it as a way of giving employment to unemployed people in my parish.  I took the risk and from that day until the day I retired I always owned a business and used it for the glory of God.   I feel I was all I should have been and have no regrets. 

Many baby boomers regretted they had not travel more when they were young.  They put it off until they were old and found then their health would not allow them to travel.  Young people, if you do not do it now, you will wish you had later.  One day you to will find your traveling days are over and you will regret it.  I have been to Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Puerto Rico, Philippines, Laos, Malaysia, Europe, Mexico, all the Virgin Islands and all the USA states.  Some of these places I have made repeat visits.  Traveling is rewarding and if you have the opportunity to do it take it.  To me traveling is more important than a fancy car, branded clothes, remodeling the kitchen, expensive home or jewelry.  I admit I have always had a very nice home with very nice furniture and today I live in a modest townhouse with modest furniture and you know I was not happier in the expensive home with expensive furniture than I am where I live today.  Those expensive things are not really for you to enjoy they are you to show off.

The thing that was high on the list of Senior Citizens was not spending enough  time with loved ones.  Reluctantly I have to say I do have some thoughts about that.  Regrets no, but maybe ‘wish’ I had done better.  I took care of my mother the last 18 years she lived.  I tried to avoid the rest of my family because they only came around to get, not give.  I adopted my nephew and I do wish I would had not worked as many hours and spent more time with him as he was growing up.  I do feel I cheated him.  I was fortunate enough to be with both parents when they died.  The rift with my older sister that left us not speaking to one another for nearly 30 years does hurt.  The only constellation is I did try for about ten years to have a relationship with her.  She is now 90 and I am 80 and both confined to home because of health issues and will never be able to see one another again, thank God we resolved our issues through the mail. I would say to young people do whatever it takes to resolve problems with those you love.

Some Senior Citizens regret the bad habits they formed when they were young and have never been able to break them or broke them too late in life, the damage had already been done. I did not smoke, drink or use drugs because I witness how it destroyed my family members.  I do wish I would have paid more attention to my health when I was young and exercised more.  I ignored a lot of signs because I did not want to admit my heart was not as it should be and that I had been cursed with the family disease.  If you young people are doing drugs, drinking too much, ignoring your health know this you are not only hurting yourself you are hurting those that love you now and may love you in the future. 

Many Senior Citizens regret they did not take education seriously.  If that happens to be you it is never to late to get an education.  You may not be one for college, but there are many good technical fields you can go into if properly trained.  Education is one thing no one can take from you.  I do not recommend going in debt to go to school.  There are plenty of State funded programs you can now take advantage of.  I believe having the name Yale, Harvard or Purdue on your diploma will help very few people.

Thirty-eight percent of Senior Citizens said they regret working at a job all their adult life that they hated.  They were afraid to leave because where they were they were making good money.  It is not worth it.  The real reason they stayed was  they were are afraid to take a risk.  I would rather make less money and be happy than make lots of money and have regrets.  You young people had better stop and figure out how many hours you will spend at a place of employment during your lifetime before you sacrifice happiness for more money. 

The Number 2 thing on the list Senior Citizens regretted was the choice they made with their money.  They ran up debt, lived above their means, did not save enough and spent too much on their adult children trying to make their lives easier.  I started out my adult life thinking about the future.  I read in a church bulletin your money should be set aside each and every payday this way 10% for God, 10% for personal savings and you live on the rest and if anything is left at the end of the money it goes in personal savings.  I have practiced that all my life. The only thing I ever bought on credit was a house.  If I wanted something I figured up the cost and began putting that aside and when I could pay cash I got it.  You really enjoy it much more when you are not worried about how you are going to pay the interest and the principle. I had a friend that used a Sears Revolving Charge Card for yeas.  She never was late on a payment then she got cancer.  Sears eventually came to collect the merchandise.  She thought they were going to take back the last thing she had purchased and not paid off.  Sears took everything she had ever purchased on that card that they could find in her house.  She did not realize the old things were the collateral on the new things she purchased on the card.  I learned a good lesson that day.

Now the number one regret of Senior Citizens was worrying about what people would think.  I AM GUILTY! I did not stop worrying about what people would think  until I was 50 years old.  Today I do not care what other people think about me.  I care what God thinks about me.  I cannot please everyone and I no longer try to.  It is my life!  Young people should go after their own life and their own happiness regardless of what others think.  Be who you are and say what you feel.  Those that are hurt by the truth are not your friends anyway.  White Lies in order to get along with someone never works.  The truth eventually surface and always surfaces at the worse time.  Life is shorter than you think, everyone has flaws, everyone is focused on what is best for them rather than what is best for you.  Embrace uncertainty and do not be afraid to make mistakes.   

I spent my life trying to please everyone in my family and my parish.  I realized too late that it is pointless and impossible.  One Sunday I confronted a problem in my parish from the pulpit.  I announced from that Sunday on I will do what God is leading me to do and if you do not like it leave.  The door in this church works both ways and there are a lot of churches in this town for you to go to and ruin.  No one is going to tell me what to preach or not preach any longer, they are not going to tell what programs I should or should not start and they certainly are not going to tell me who they want or do not want in this church or the kind of people they want in OUR church.  This is not OUR church this is God’s church.  My problems stopped immediately. 

BE WHO GOD CREATED YOU TO BE. BE YOURSELF AND YOU WILL FIND HAPPINESS. BE YOURSELF AND YOU WILL HAVE NO REGRETS WHEN YOU GROW OLD.    

Manny Pacquiao you have demonstrated what bigots and hypocrites some Christians are.

Once again Manny Pacquiao has demonstrated how a lack of education can keep a man in ignorance. Manny you need to watch National Geographics and not cartoons on television. If you did you would know that other species besides man have same sex partners. Manny, Christians pay Caesar what belongs to Caesar,so pay your debt to the people of the Philippines - TAXES! I would never say anything negative about your ability to fight in the ring, but unfortunately that does not qualify you to represent the people in Congress, Senate or as President. The message I think you send to the young people of the Philippines is education does not matter or is not important.'I will be President with a third grade education'.

You may say you're sorry in an attempt not to lose endorsements and votes, but what comes from a man's mouths speaks for his heart. You my friend are a bigot and are misguided in your theology.

 Manny Pacquiao - compared same-sex couples to animals. “It’s common sense. Do you see animals mating with the same sex?" YES, Manny I have! "Animals are better because they can distinguish male from female,” Manny, read something besides a boxing magazine. "If men mate with men and women mate with women they are worse than animals.” Is that another one of your direct quotes from the bible - show me where it says that homosexuals are worse than animals. It also says women and men do not have sex outside of marriage - you know what I mean.

I think your time would be better spent not making disingenuous apologies and seek forgiveness from God.

Manny you said, "God only expects man and woman to be together and to be legally
married, only if they are in love with each other.(Manny in case you did not know marriage in biblical time had nothing to do with love, marriages were arranged.) It should not be of the same sex so as to adulterate the altar of matrimony, like in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah of Old." Manny, did God say it was okay to have sex with others after you went to the altar of matrimony. I have always thought Sodom and Gomorrah was about rape and incest, but I am sure you know more about the bible than I do.

I wrote a blog a few weeks back on should we make idols of celebrities - Manny has demonstrated why we should not!

Political Party Platforms are a joke!

The political parties’ official platforms, written at the national conventions, mean very little or even nothing. These are not things that individual candidates must follow and they are given essentially no attention in the campaigns and certainly not after the votes are cast.

It is very difficult for political parties to maintain discipline over their members.  The people who run for Congress are not picked by the party leadership. They are picked by the voters in primary elections. If the candidates do not want to follow the party platform, there is very little that the party can do about it. We have seen in recent years many examples of “tea party” insurgents defeating Republican incumbents in the primaries even though the party supported the incumbents.

The party cannot force elected officials to follow the party platform and candidates tend to ignore them.  Candidate’s campaign on whatever issues they think will be most effective in getting them elected. Party platforms are no longer important.

Read the 2008 platforms of both parties carefully and you will see they are well-crafted documents that really mean nothing. I am going to use the Democrat Party Platform as an example to prove my point.  

In 2008 the Democratic Party called tax increases ‘investments in America’. They obviously did a good job of making it appear that increasing taxes would increase jobs. Normally voter run from parties that espouse tax increases, but Obama won.   

The Democratic Party stated in the 2008 platform they would provide an immediate energy rebate to American families struggling with the record price of gasoline. Were the rebates for the purpose of helping American families or friends and contributors of Democrat candidates?

The 789 billion dollar ‘Stimulus Package’ they were proud of in 2008 was no longer called the ‘Stimulus Package’ after it failed to stimulate anything, but the bank accounts of Obama’s friends and supporters. The ‘Stimulus Package’ of the 2008 platform became the’ Recover Act’. Stimulus became a dirty word in Washington. Obama joked about ‘shovel ready jobs’ the stimulus money was invested in that turned out not to be not so ‘shovel ready’ after all. I guess it is easy to make jokes about losing money when it is not your money you are losing.

The Democrats in 2008 promised affordable health care, but did we get it. No we did not. Insurance premiums sky rocketed and continues to increase. We cannot keep our doctor as promised or the health insurance policy we had if we were happy with it as promised. In order to have health insurance coverage policy holders had to be satisfied with high deductibles. If you do not have insurance coverage you have to pay a penalty each year. I live in the Philippine and last year I had to pay over $800 in penalties for not having a health insurance policy. I could not afford a U.S. health insurance policy that would pay hospital expenses abroad and Medicare and government insurance policies do not cover anyone outside the continental United States.

Be careful of the word ‘We’ in platforms. You will find the ‘We’ is ‘You’. They write the platform and the legislation and pass the cost on to ‘You’.

Democrat platforms are always committed to an economic policy that produces good jobs with good pay and benefits. That is why they claim they support unions. In reality they support unions in order to get the union bosses to put pressure on union members to vote for them. In 2008 they claimed when unions are allowed to do their job of making sure that workers get their fair share, they pull people out of poverty and create a stronger middle class. Did that happen – wages are stagnated, the middle class is weaker than it has been since the Great Depression. Higher wages are good and needed, but keep in mind higher wages mean higher cost of living. An x-ray in the Philippines cost $7 how much do they cost in the United States? I by no means endorse the low wages paid in the Philippines.

In 2008 the Democrats promised to cut poverty in half within ten year- is that happening? They promised to provide all our children a world-class education, from early childhood through college – college is more expensive now than ever. We will develop innovative transitional job programs that place unemployed people into temporary jobs and train them for permanent ones – are welfare recipients required to participate in work programs or go to school - NO. To help workers share in our country’s productivity, we’ll expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, and raise the minimum wage and index it to inflation – they made sure illegal aliens got Earned Income Tax Credit.  The majority of adults in poverty are women, and to combat poverty we must work for fair pay, support for mothers, and policies that promote responsible fatherhood – more homes are without fathers today than ever before.

The Democrats said higher taxes would lower gas prices and they would solve the problem of four-dollar a gallon gas with a comprehensive plan and investment in clean energy. How many of Obama’s investment in cleaner energy went bankrupt costing tax payer? Do you really believe higher taxes and bankrupt clean energy companies brought gas prices down to where they are today?

The Democrats promised to make quality, affordable early childhood care and education available to every American child from the day he or she is born. Their Our Children’s First Agenda, including increases in Head Start and Early Head Start, and investments in high-quality Pre-K, were supposed to improve quality of education and provide learning and support to families with children ages zero to five. Their Our Presidential Early Learning Council was supposed to coordinate these efforts. Regardless of the money the government throws at education we are ranked 27 in education worldwide. The Constitution does not provide for such programs. It is my opinion public school education suffers because of teachers unions the very thing the Democrats support. What incentive does a person have to do a good job if they cannot be fired?

The Democrat platform stated “We will invest in American jobs and finally end the tax breaks that ship jobs overseas. We will create an Advanced Manufacturing Fund to provide for our next generation of innovators and job creators; we will expand the Manufacturing Extension Partnerships and create new job training programs for clean technologies. We will bring together government, private industry, workers, and academia to turn around the manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy and provide assistance to automakers and parts companies to encourage retooling of facilities in this country to produce advanced technology vehicles and their key components.” General Motors is moving plants to Mexico as I write this. How many manufacturing jobs have return to America, especially from China? How many trillions of dollars remain in banks abroad because manufacturers will not bring the funds back to America because of high Corporate Taxes? This money being kept abroad could boost United States investment in manufacturing jobs.

The Democrats promised to seek a world with no nuclear weapons and take concrete actions to move in this direction. Do you really believe the Iran deal will do that? Their goal was to eliminate nuclear weapons worldwide. They did a good job of trying to weaken our ability to respond militarily to a crisis, but fail to tell Iran, North Korea and Russia they were supposed to do the same.

A promise they kept was to not develop new nuclear weapons.  But, they failed to get Russia and Putin on board with their plan. Hillary’s ‘restart button’ plan failed.

The Democrats promised to rebuild our military and to prepare it for the missions of the future – NO COMMENT!

In 2008 the Democrats promised to support our friends and participate in their stability. I wonder how Israel feels about that platform promise.

They also kept their promise to eliminate “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Program and replace it with a system allowing Individual Soldiers to express their sexual preferences openly. I will give them credit for doing that.

The list goes on and on of failed promises in the Democrat 2008 platform. If you took the Republican platform you would find as many failed promises.  Do you still believe a wise voter votes based on what is in either parties platform. They promise during campaigns and do what they want when elected. 

Why do most of the poor remain poor?

 I think one reason the war on poverty cannot be won is a lot of people who are trying to address the problem see it as a ‘one solution fits all’ problem or that ‘one thing’ cause’s poverty. The one solution and one cause are generally thought to be the lack of money.

My caregiver who is Filipino was being critical of poor Filipinos. He made the statement, “If the poorest of the poor Filipino gets his hands on any extra money he will spend it on a party.”  I told him that problem is not unique to the Philippines. I worked with the poor in the United States for over forty years and witness the same thing over and over again. I would even say that the majority of the poor I worked with would do that. I have had many volunteers working with me on projects become so frustrated they would drop out because of it.

I admit it is foolish for the poor to waste money, but I really do not know if I had lived in extreme poverty month after month, year after year, if I would not want to take advantage of any extra money that came my way to celebrate. 

We know a family that has not had enough money to provide for the basic needs of their family for twenty plus years and recently one of their children got a job at a Call Center. The first thing they want to do is buy a new car. They have never owned a car in their life. To me that is foolish! To them it is about pride and ego it tells family and friends they are overcoming poverty.  They had a party to celebrate the father’s sixtieth birthday at a local café, they paid for the meals and drinks of friends and family, again foolish to me, but not to them. I do not understand their thinking, but they do not understand mine. I was taught to save for a rainy day and when I mentioned that to them they told me, “…every day is a rainy day for them.” Money alone is not a solution to their poverty. The more they have the more they will spend.

Dr. Ben Carson who is running for President in the United States believes that it’s okay to be born poor, but that anyone who stays poor is remaining poor because he or she is lazy. He also says that those poor people are trying to find excuses for their own laziness when they blame their adversities on other causes than themselves, such as the prejudices of others or wrong governmental policies or bad luck. Quite honestly, I have known share-croppers working on the farms of my family members around Alabama that regardless of how hard they work they will remain poor. I see Philippine men, women and children going around my neighborhood looking in trash bins for plastic and metal that they can sell and regardless of how hard they work they will remain poor.  There poverty has nothing to do with being lazy.

Dr. Ben Carson is another example of one solution fits all. He is for a ‘flat tax’ for raising revenue for the government. He believes rich and poor should be taxed alike ten percent (or a random number) on all income. He bases this on the Biblical tithe.  Dr. Carson is not the only U.S. politician for a ‘flat tax’. The ‘flat tax’ idea completely ignores the fact that the poor have more needs than desires and that the rich have more desires than needs. One dollar to the poor has far more meaning than one dollar to the rich. One dollar to the poor could mean a meal. I don’t think assuming or believing God wills wealth and poverty is a viable solution or that religion alone is a solution.

A new report states in 2013 77% of students from wealthy families earned bachelor's degrees by age 24, compared to only 9% of those from poor families. New research shows nearly half of the nation’s recent college graduates work jobs that don’t require a degree.

Is college a solution to end poverty? I think education is only a partial cure for poverty. I definitely do not think a college education by itself is sufficient to end poverty, but I do think programs that combine general education with specific training areas that meet the individual’s needs and the local labor markets needs work toward overcoming poverty. When I was in High School these classes were offered for those not planning to attend college, but the government has eliminated them from the curriculum.    

Of the 30 occupations adding the most jobs to our economy, those requiring the least training make up half of the total.  The low-wage sector of our economy will be the source of most of the job growth over the next decade and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Obama believes college and higher minimum wages are the solution to poverty and is willing to pour more tax dollars into college programs and use any action he can to increase minimum wages, but they are not a viable solution to end poverty. We will not educate our nation out of poverty.

Will government welfare programs eliminate poverty? They will not eliminate anything as they are presently administered. The government has spent $20 trillion on the “War on Poverty” but poverty rates are as high as they were 50 years ago. The present welfare systems are no longer safety nets they are snares that trap people in poverty and dependency.

The welfare system was never created as a single system like Medicare or Social Security. The welfare system is made up of 13 large programs, for instance housing assistance can take the form of public housing, rent vouchers, or tenant support and each administered by different government agencies. The 13 programs generally run independently from one another and are managed by 8 large agencies in Washington that generally don’t interact with one another.

Most of the 13 programs have their own qualification standards. They have separate forms, rules, compliance, audits, etc. Some work in conjunction with state or local programs and some are run completely independently.   

The poorest Americans are often the least able to navigate the complex welfare system. This is why there are so many homeless on the street existing outside the safety net that was built to protect them.  Benefits are not reaching those in extreme poverty and those in the middle class are often getting too much. It all comes down to knowing how to work the system.  Our welfare system is broken; it teaches the wrong values, rewards the wrong choices and hurts those it was meant to help.

The system has many flaws and no one in authority seems interested in correcting them. The welfare system discourages marriage because a loss in benefits can occur when two people marry.  For example a single mom with a minimum wage job could lose all of her benefits if is she marries a man earning $20,000 a year. Often the decision is made by the mom to just live with the man and keep the benefits. She lies on her welfare forms to cover up the fact a man is in the house and when caught, if caught, no legal action is taken.  Today’s welfare system discourages work because at certain income levels benefit loss is greater than additional income earned. Many of the programs penalize welfare recipients fifty cents for every dollar earned. Why would you work if in the end you are going to end up with the same amount you are getting from welfare without working?

There are very few Conditions attached to the welfare system. Conditions should include, work requirements, job training, school attendance and/or grades obtained, drug and alcohol testing or time restrictions on how long you can receive welfare. Without conditions the Welfare System does not encourage recipients to change their lives. Obama argues it is unfair to put conditions on welfare recipients that are not put on the general public – makes no sense to me.

I think Obama’s simplistic solution is just that too simplistic. Obama thinks there are just too many rich people, and they are causing all the poverty problem. So, he proposes, let’s take more money from the successful people and redistribute it to the poor. It is divisive because it fans the flames of envy and resentment. Punishing success will only deter further success and that is not what you want if you want the economy to grow.

The federal government can inefficiently redistribute money; it cannot redistribute success, character, personal satisfaction, dignity, purpose, perseverance or any of the qualities and outcomes that make life worth living. How much the top 1 percent of the population earns has no bearing on whether the bottom 20 percent can move up.

What we need is to reform our welfare system to promote work and individual success, not dependency on government. We need to put conditions on welfare assistance. All welfare assistance needs to be under one government department. We must eliminate marriage penalties in federal programs.  We need to encourage vocational training. We need to help low-income children and parents break free of bad public schools. We need to provide incentives for employers to hire welfare recipients as we do in some States for ex-cons. We need more case workers to eliminate the improper welfare payments, including fraud, that is estimated to be about 9.0% of all federal welfare payments made and totaled $59.6 billion in fiscal year 2014 (Office of Management and Budget General Accounting Office). We need mandatory sentencing for welfare fraud.We need tax reform that is not punitive, especially Corporate Tax reform. We need to stop playing politics and using welfare to buy votes and actually help the poor. 

The new education bill ESSA may prove to be another disaster!

 I have written blogs before and made the statement I no longer know what the Republican Party stand for. It seems to me we now have a one party system in the United States – The D and R Party. I put the “D” first because when the Democrats stand up the Republicans bow.

We just saw another example of the one party system last Wednesday; the Senate followed the House in passing the conference report reauthorizing No Child Left Behind. The new bill, called the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), claims it will return education control to the states. It is supposed to allow the states to do away with the Common Core national standards, and prohibit the Secretary of Education from dictating standards and assessments.

Don’t be fooled the legislation passed by Washington lawmakers does not give states more control over their schools because the bill does not give states adequate authority and there are no enforcement provisions protecting states against overreach by the federal authorities. We must also remember that it is Washington politicians that control the purse strings.

The president of the 3 million National Education Association members (teachers union) praised what lawmakers have done on Capitol Hill regarding ESSA. Have we not been told repeatedly by Republican politician’s that the teachers union is the cause of school failures. The Public School Teachers Unions like ESSA because it was designed to hurt charter, online and private schools. The only good part of ESSA, if there is a good part is that it continues to exempt homeschool families from any kind of federal mandates.

The Republican politicians could have taken the lead and written an education bill that would accomplish what the Republican Party leaders claim they stand for and conservative voter want. But, instead they fell in line with Obama and the Democrats on a bill that will seriously affect adversely millions of conservative Americans until the year 2020. It was a repeat performance of the passing of Obamacare.

The ESSA text is 1061-pages long and was only released on Monday. We now have a piece of legislation like Obamacare that was passed without many reading it.  Republicans and some Democrats when all the flaws in the bill start to appear will claim they were not given adequate time to study the bill before they had to vote on it just as they did with Obamacare. The new Republican House Speaker, promised transparency, an open process and a more responsive House, so much for that promise.

Opposition was growing among Republican member to ESSA so Ryan jammed the vote through faster than anticipated. Then they pretend they do not know why the Republican base is so frustrated with them that they would support outsiders like Donald Trump.

Speaker Ryan and his fellow Republican Representatives and Republican Senators once again raised the white flag of surrender to Obama and the Democrats. They gave liberal groups and teachers unions a huge victory. Republican leadership surrendered control of our children’s education for years to come to liberals without any kind of repercussions.

Were we not told by Republican politicians the Department of Education should be abolished because it is inefficient and we should return control of our schools to local districts and parents? Did they once again lie to us or did they just not have the guts to fight Obama, Democrats and liberals or are they really Democrats in disguise.

It appears that our elected officials in Washington both Democrat and Republican still do not understand that when they pass a bill, it gets implemented, and when it gets implemented, people feel it. There will be consequences to this bill that will affect millions of Americans for years to come. Our elected politicians have an obligation/responsibility to study every line of any new legislation before voting for it. They passed No Child Left Behind over a decade ago and today few want their name associated with the bill. Every Republican who supported this bill should be looked at closely in upcoming elections.

ESSA according to Jane Robbins, a senior fellow at the American Principles Project, allows the Federal government to continue to lay out particular requirements for state standards and uses code language throughout that gives the federal government the tools to pressure the states to stick with Common Core rather than risking their federal money by adopting something better. It maintains the federally dictated testing regimen and requires states to implement assessments that are expensive, that have been proven in the past to be ineffective and unworkable, and that operate not by assessing students' academic knowledge, but rather by measuring their attitudes and dispositions.

ESSA's new preschool program and President Obama's pet project, "21st-century
community learning centers" are all bad ideas. Obama has pushed the “21^st-century community learning center” idea for some time. It basically allows public schools to be expanded to replace family and church as the center of every child's life, "services" including mental-health programs. Parents should be alarmed that the government will assess the mental health of their children and worse the government will have the right to fix any problem the government claims to have found. I ask all fellow conservative Republicans if this is this is what you send Republican politicians to Washington to do?

ESSA is so progressive it was supported by every single Democrat in Congress. It was supported by Barack Obama. It was supported by the owners of the Common Core national standards testing group. Of course it was they make a fortune off their testing. It was supported by every pro-Common Core and pro-progressive education interest group in the country. It was strongly opposed by over 200 conservative anti-Common Core grassroots organizations.

Rand Paul voted against ESSA. Ted Cruz voted against cloture, but missed the final vote where it counts. He claims he opposed ESSA, but if he truly opposed the bill he should have been present for the vote and cast a vote against it. He certainly has attack Jeb Bush for supporting Common Core and ESSA is Common Core with a face lift. Marco Rubio claims he opposes ESSA, but he not only missed the cloture vote he missed the final vote. Lindsey Graham again demonstrated his love for the establishment and voted in favor of passage. I guess in some weird way I admire Lindsay Graham for having the guts not to dodge the vote. Jeb Bush, ‘Mr. Common Core’, in an interview on Fox News could not praise ESSA and Common Core enough. I never supported Jeb Bush, but after watching his spill on Fox I would not trust him with my dog, much less my child.

I guess Donald Trump will have to speak out and educate the voters and the Republican Party on ESSA as he has on immigration, terrorist and refugees.

ESSA is nothing more than a new name for a previously failed program known as Common Core.