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The Pope’s Mistake

During World War II, Winston Churchill urged Stalin to consider the opinions of the Pope. Displaying classic arrogance, the dictator replied, “How many divisions does the Pope have?”

Over 70 years later, the Vatican remains a powerful influence in the world, while Russian Communism is dead.

Catholicism has survived across two millennia. It endured attempts at eradication by Roman emperors. It outlived a regrettable period when the Vatican functioned as secular state.

The Papacy has arguably emerged as the world’s most respected religious institution because modern Popes understand that the Vatican’s role is to lead in moral matters, not temporal ones.  In that respect, they are directly following the example of Jesus himself.

Christ was born into a particularly troubling time.  According to the New Testament, he was on occasion urged to take a stand on the political issues of the day, particularly the Roman occupation of the Jewish homeland. Jesus refused, and set an example of moral leadership that an extraordinary percentage of the world’s population considers to be the guiding light of all mankind.

It appears that Pope Francis has taken a different course than Jesus did. He has espoused views on matters of science, economics, and international affairs. In doing so, his opinions must be judged not as those of a religious figure, but as a political one.

While the Pontiff has been a breath of fresh air in his attempts to reform the administration of the Catholic Religion, his political views are tired, old, and frankly discredited. His immediate predecessors rejected the “Liberation Theology” which describes Pope Francis’s perspective.

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In his address to Congress, he spoke of the need for compassion to immigrants. Has he not reflected on the reality that no nation is currently taking in more immigrants, nor treating them better, than the United States?  Shouldn’t he spend more time lecturing the governments that immigrants are freeing from, rather than the governments they are fleeing to?

The Pope has displayed great and justifiable concern for the poor. It appears that he singles out capitalism for criticism. But here his lack of adequate research is manifest. Capitalism has been the most successful system to reduce the number of people in poverty, while redistributionist regimes have failed to do so.  Need examples? Compare the former nations of East and West Germany. Compare North Korea with South Korea. It wasn’t the economy of capitalist America that collapsed, it was the Soviet Union’s.

The Pope is clearly worried about the health of the environment.  There are key areas, deforestation in his home continent of South America being a prime example, that are undeniably vital to the health of the planet.  Rather than concentrate on that, however, he places his trust on increasingly suspect studies about man-made global warming. He has failed to mention that the “solutions” to this unproven issue would devastate the poor that he properly displays so much care for.

Pope Francis is correctly concerned about the dignity of each human life.  What, then, compelled him to visit with the harsh totalitarian leadership of Cuba, but not with the heroic dissidents of that oppressed island nation?  Why did he consent to speak in the shadow of a memorial to Che Guevara, a vicious murderer?

Indeed, in an era when stunning acts of aggression, repression and atrocity are increasing with frightening intensity as a result of the acts of Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and terrorist forces, the Pontiff seems to inexplicably concentrate far more on his preconceived notions of the shortcomings of largely peaceful and open democratic western nations.

There are numerous international figures that, with greater knowledge and expertise, provide intellectual guidance on issues such as immigration, economics, and the environment.  There is, however, only one Pope to remind all mankind of its obligation to treat each human with dignity, and in recognition of the divine spark that exists within each soul.

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America’s crisis in space

America’s return to human space flight capability has been pushed yet again into the future.

The Orion spacecraft, already in the relatively distant future of 2021, has been pushed back again to 2023. That date would mean that NASA manned spacecraft would be absent from space for a stunning 12 years, since the Space Shuttle Atlantis mission of July 2011.

The gap was to be filled by the Constellation spaceflight system, which President Obama cancelled, leaving the United States with no domestic human spaceflight capability.  Constellation was to be used for both earth orbital missions and a return to the moon.

According to Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas)  “Once again, the Obama administration is choosing to delay deep space exploration priorities such as Orion and the Space Launch System that will take U.S. astronauts to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.  While this administration has consistently cut funding for these programs and delayed their development, Congress has consistently restored funding as part of our commitment to maintaining American leadership in space. We must chart a compelling course for our nation’s space program so that we can continue to inspire future generations of scientists, engineers and explorers.  I urge this administration to follow the lead of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee’s NASA Authorization Act to fully fund NASA’s exploration programs.”

The administration’s FY16 budget request proposed cuts of more than $440 million for the programs while earth science accounts have increased by 63 percent during the past eight years. Thirteen agencies do climate research, but only one conducts space exploration.

According to NASA,  the “Orion spacecraft is built to take humans farther than they’ve ever gone before. Orion will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities. Orion will launch on NASA’s new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System.”

Many have expressed deep concern that NASA has been politicized by the Obama Administration. It has been charged that the space agency has been mainly used to further the White House’s environmental agenda. They point to the diversion of funds from traditional efforts such as manned space flight and towards climate change.

In 2010, several former APOLLO program astronauts wrote to the White House to oppose the Administration’s controversial new direction for NASA, noting that “Without the skill and experience that actual spacecraft operation provides, the USA is far too likely to be on a long downhill slide to mediocrity.  America must decide if it wishes to remain a leader in space.  If it does, we should institute a program which will give us the very best chance of achieving that goal.”
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Critics of the White House also point to bizarre comments made by Charles Bolden, whom the President appointed to run the space agency. Shortly after his appointment, Bolden, speaking in Cairo, stated

“…before I became the NASA administrator [President Obama] charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science.”

In other comments, Bolden stated that his most important task as head of NASA was to reach out to Muslims.

Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) has introduced legislation to de-politicize the space agency.

“I authored the Space Leadership Preservation Act which would make NASA more professional and less political by establishing a long-term NASA Administrator who overlaps presidential administrations, creating a board to drive the vision for NASA exploration, and allowing NASA to develop spacecraft using long term contracts. This legislation would provide NASA with stability and authority to pursue our universe’s most pressing questions.”

Rep. Steven Palazzo, (R-Mississippi) the House of Representatives Space subcommittee chair, applauded a budget bill earlier this year that rebalanced the space agency’s budget towards NASA’s traditional activities.

By putting off the lion’s share of funding to long after it has left office, the Obama Administration may have eluded the harsh criticism it may otherwise have faced if it had simply stated that it was defunding NASA’s human spaceflight program.

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Census Bureau reports decline in prosperity

A U.S. Census Bureau study reveals shocking statistics about the decline in American prosperity—particularly for the middle class.

According to the report, “income declined for non-Hispanic White households, households maintained by a native-born householder, households in the West and those inside principal cities of metropolitan statistical areas. The 2014 poverty rate increased for two groups: people aged 25 and older with at least a bachelor’s degree and married-couple families.”

Median income declined in 2014, from $54,462 in 2013 to $53,657 in 2014. The 2014 figure is 6.5% lower than 2007. The overall 2014 poverty rate was 2.3 percentage points higher than in 2007.

Interestingly, the real median income of households maintained by a foreign born person increased by 4.3 percent between 2013 and 2014. In contrast, the median income of households maintained by a native-born person declined 2.3 percent. The income of households maintained by a foreign-born person increased 4.3 percent, from $47,561 to $49,592; while the median income of households maintained by a native-born person declined 2.3 percent, from $55,989 to $54,678. The last increase for nonfamily households was in 2009.

The Census Bureau report notes that neither the real median earnings of men ($50,383) and women ($39,621) who worked full time year round has experienced a significant annual increase in median earnings since 2009.

The real median income of nonHispanic White households declined by 1.7 percent between 2013 and 2014, from $61,317 to $60,256. For Black, Asian, and Hispanic-origin households, the 2013-2014 percentage changes in real median household income were not statistically significant Non-Hispanic White and Black households last experienced an annual increase in median income in 2007, and Asian household’s last annual increase was in 1999. Hispanic households experienced an annual increase in 2013.

On the other hand, you can get mouthsofthesouth.com levitra price a highly satisfactory penile erection which results into satisfactory penetration. It doesn’t make a difference how viagra discounts old you are biologically is fundamentally under your own control,’ Kenton says. Men look up to such herbal and natural supplements to work on a variety of problems or just to improve their overall performance in bed. http://mouthsofthesouth.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/MOTS-09.26.20-Little.pdf buy cialis They also can respond to herbal buy female viagra treatment. 1. Among the race groups, Asian households had the highest median income in 2014 ($74,297). The median income of non-Hispanic White households was $60,256, and for Black households it was $35,398. For Hispanic households, the median income was $42,491. The real median income of Asian households in 2014 was not statistically different from the pre-2001- recession peak. Whereas, household income in 2014 was 4.0 percent lower for non-Hispanic Whites (from $62,762 in 1999), 13.2 percent lower for Blacks (from $40,783 in 2000),  The difference between the real median income of Asian households in 2014 and 2000 was not statistically significant. and 6.8 percent lower for Hispanics (from $45,596 in 2000)

Households with the highest median household incomes were in the Northeast ($59,210) and the West. The Northeast region includes Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The Midwest region includes Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. The South region includes Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia, a state equivalent. The West region includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. ($57,688), followed by the Midwest ($54,267) and the South ($49,655).

In 2014, households within metropolitan areas but outside principal cities had the highest median income ($61,600), while households outside metropolitan areas had the lowest ($45,482). Between 2013 and 2014, the real income of households inside principal cities declined 3.5 percent, while the changes in median incomes of households for the remaining three residential categories shown in Table 1 were not statistically significant.

For family households, married-couple households had the highest median income in 2014 ($81,025), followed by households maintained by men with no wife present ($53,684). Those maintained by women with no husband present had the lowest median ($36,151).

The Pew research organization noted earlier this year “the growing percentage of households paying 30 percent (the federal standard for housing affordability) or more of their income on housing illustrates that it is increasingly difficult for many American families to make ends meet.”

 

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Research confirms massive illegal voting

Non-citizens are voting in U.S. elections, according to an Old Dominion University study.

The analysis examined participation rates by non-citizens using a nationally represented sample that included non-citizen immigrants. It found that “some non-citizens participate in U.S. elections, and that this participation has been large enough to change meaningful election outcomes including electoral college votes and Congressional elections.  Non-citizen votes likely gave Senate Democrats the pivotal 60th vote needed to overcome filibusters in order to pass health care reform and other Obama priorities in the 111th Congress.”

Other research indicates how fraudulent voting, including voting by illegal immigrants, felons, and additional ineligibles, occurs. Reasons include the poor maintenance of voter registration rolls, the lack of viable verification procedures when individuals register to vote, and the Department of Justice’s militant stance against voter ID.

True the Vote  has found that 136 counties across 21 U.S. states have bloated voter rolls. The counties have failed to make reasonable efforts to address the problem.

According to True the Vote Founder Catherine Engelbrecht, “Bloated voter rolls hurt everyone. Deceased voters aren’t removed, duplicate registrations aren’t revoked and the records of voters who’ve relocated aren’t corrected. Low verification standards, like absence of voter ID, add to the confusion. Bloated rolls create the ideal environment for identity theft and voter fraud. With the U.S. Justice Department still refusing to set a national standard and enforce federal maintenance requirements, we’re now starting to see entire states come close to showing over 100 percent registration.”

“True the Vote has threatened legal action, and counties in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia received pre-litigation notices. True the Vote has requested that the counties outline efforts to remove dead, felon, moved or otherwise ineligible voters ahead of the 2016 election season to avoid litigation.  All told, the states represented in the findings account for 305 electoral votes—more than enough for a presidential election landslide.”

A study of voter fraud (also reported in Truth Revolt ) by Harvard’s Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES) confirmed the findings of Judicial Watch on the role illegal immigrants have played in recent elections. The study found that enough non-citizens voted in 2008 to potentially “turn the tide” in favor of the Democrats.
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The Harvard study was an academic project involving teams of researchers located throughout the United States. The CCES findings support the allegations that enough illegal votes were cast in 2008 to turn the tide in close races to favor Democratic candidates and provide them with victories…Though the Harvard study was originally designed to dispel claims of widespread voter fraud, the results proved otherwise. Not only did a ‘significant number’ of voters vote illegally, CCES found that they overwhelmingly voted Democrat, with Obama winning “more than 80 percent of the non-citizen vote.” The Washington Examiner reports:

“A significant number of voters who were not citizens cast illegal ballots in U.S. elections and the possibility exists that those unlawful ballots helped President Barack Obama to win the election in 2008, according to two public-interest organizations, one of which is located on the campus of the left-leaning Harvard University campus. While the study was originally aimed at dispelling claims of significant voter fraud, it surprisingly confirms that elections are in some cases being stolen. […]

Townhall  noted:

“It is an article of faith on the Left that voter fraud does not exist beyond the imaginations of racist right-wingers, hellbent on imposing ‘unconstitutional’ voter ID laws fashioned to ‘suppress’ minority turnout in elections. These objections are race-baiting nonsense; they’re unsupported by both empirical evidence and Supreme Court precedent. [A]fter Georgia implemented its own law in 2007 (which survived a legal challenge), minority voter participation increased in the …next two election cycles. ABC News has called voter fraud a ‘rare but real’ phenomenon, evidenced by a number of relatively high-profile convictions in recent years. Congress defunded the left-wing group ACORN (for whom Barack Obama once organized) over widespread voter registration fraud and other outrages. The watchdog group True the Vote — whose founder’s businesses and family have been harassed by the IRS and other federal agencies — documents voter fraud prosecutions in 46 states since 2000.

“[Florida’s]…WBBH-TV reporter Andy Pierrotti managed to track down dozens of local residents who were (a) both non-US citizens and (b) registered to vote in the swing state. Many of them had illegally voted in recent elections. …  This local reporter found 94 illegally registered voters in one small region using one narrow verification method. If you extrapolate his number over Florida’s 67 counties, that’s nearly 6,300 people. In 2000, the United States Presidency was determined by 537 Florida votes.”

The California Political Review reports:  “Since 80 percent of noncitizens vote Democratic, according to the study, noncitizen participation could have “been large enough to change meaningful election outcomes including Electoral College votes [in North Carolina in 2008], and Congressional elections” such as the 2008 race in Minnesota in which Al Franken was elected to the U.S. Senate…mounting evidence makes clear this is a real problem.”

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Ranking the states by their fiscal health

The massive federal debt, and the annual deficits that add to it, are frequently in the news. Far less covered are the overall financial challenges facing the fifty states.  A substantial portion of fiscal problems are attributed to underfunded pensions and medical expenses.

While each individual state possesses individual strengths and weaknesses, some generalizations can be made. Overall, citizens of high tax states are leaving to take up residence in lower taxed states.  IRS data reveals that:

  • Texas has the largest positive net migration1 of 152,477 people (number of exemptions) on 72,032 individual income tax returns, followed by Florida (73,789 people on 27,991 returns) and South Carolina (28,905 people on 13,475 returns).
  • New York had the largest negative net migration of 113,861 people on 51,825 returns.
  • Regionally, Texas accounted for more than half of the net migration into the South, while residents leaving New York made up more than half of the net loss from the Northeast.
  • Returns filed by primary taxpayers ages 34 or younger were at least twice as likely as those in any other age category to have migrated to another State between Calendar Years 2012 and 2013.
  • The single largest net migration was from New York to Florida (17,355 people on 7,861 returns).

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The Americans for Tax Reform organizationnoted that in the latest year for which complete records are available (2013) Arizona gained the most in terms of “wealth migration,” predominately from high tax, high regulation states.

“In 2013 Arizona had the largest net population gains from:

  • California 5,366 ($317 million)
  • Illinois 3,701 ($238 million)
  • Washington 1,538 ($82 million)
  • New Mexico 1,304 ($50 million)
  • New York 1,251 ($96 million)

States like New York, Illinois, and California were 2013’s biggest losers.”

Overall fiscal health of each individual state has been ranked by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University .

“With new spending commitments for Medicaid and growing long-term obligations for pensions and health care benefits, states must be ever vigilant to consider both the short- and long-term consequences of policy decisions. Understanding how each state is performing in regard to a vari­ety of fiscal indicators can help state policymakers as they make these decisions. A closer analysis of the individual metrics behind the ranking shows how each state’s fiscal condi­tion should be assessed. Notably, nearly all states have unfunded pension liabilities that are large relative to state personal income, indicating that all states need to take a closer look at their unfunded pensions, which represent a significant portion of each state’s economy. Another finan­cial crisis could mean serious trouble for many states that are otherwise fiscally stable.”

According to the Mercatus research,  Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Florida are currently the most stable, while Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York at the bottom.

The complete rankings, from best to worst: Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Florida, Wyoming, Ohio, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Montana, Utah, Nevada, Alabama, Missouri, Idaho, Indiana, South Carolina, Iowa, Texas, New Hampshire, Virginia, Colorado, Washington, Kansas, Oregon, Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Delaware, Minnesota, Arizona, Mississippi, Michigan, Louisiana, New Mexico, Maryland, Rhode Island, Vermont, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Maine, West Virginia, California, Kentucky, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Illinois.

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Why American manufacturing has declined

The most vital sector of the U.S. economy continues to exhibit worrisome indicators.

Manufacturing is a vital source of employment, and a key component of America’s balance of trade. In August, according to the Institute for Supply Management it registered a “PMI” of  51.1 percent, a decrease of 1.6 percentage points from the July reading of 52.7 percent. (The  Project Management Institute figure is widely used as an indicator of economic trends, and as a short-term forecaster of several important lagging output variables.) The New Orders Index registered 51.7 percent, a decrease of 4.8 percentage points from the reading of 56.5 percent in July. The Production Index registered 53.6 percent, 2.4 percentage points below the July reading of 56 percent. The Employment Index registered 51.2 percent, 1.5 percentage points below the July reading of 52.7 percent. Inventories of raw materials registered 48.5 percent, a decrease of 1 percentage point from the July reading of 49.5 percent. The Prices Index registered 39 percent, down 5 percentage points from the July reading of 44 percent, indicating lower raw materials prices for the 10th consecutive month. The New Export Orders Index registered 46.5 percent, down 1.5 percentage points from the July reading of 48 percent.

According to the Economic Policy Instiute “The United States lost 5 million manufacturing jobs between January 2000 and December 2014… job losses can be traced to growing trade deficits in manufacturing products prior to the Great Recession and then the massive output collapse during the Great Recession…Between 1970 and 2000, manufacturing employment was relatively stable, ranging from 16.8 to 19.6 million, and generally remaining between 17 and 18 million…However, this relationship broke down in the early 2000s, a period of rapidly growing trade deficits.”

What happened? According to the Daily Caller, “Bill Clinton.  It was his efforts at the end of his second administration that opened U.S. markets for Chinese imports.   Under a prior system of rules that apply to communist countries, if the United States had found China to be exporting goods in an unfair manner (e.g., special export subsidies to artificially lower prices), we could respond unilaterally by raising import taxes (tariffs) on Chinese products. This was a relatively simple system of retaliation largely because it was unilateral. Enter Bill Clinton…he pushed to have China become a member of the U.N.’s World Trade Organization (WTO), and to have U.S. trade disputes with China arbitrated by this multilateral organization. Consequently, China was no longer subject to U.S. unilateral action under our trade rules…What about U.S. exports to China? According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2013 our trade deficit with China hit a record high at $318.4 billion…”

According to Eamonn Fingleton, writing in Forbes “Some of us have long argued that the United States has been committing economic suicide by letting its once-peerless manufacturing base fade away. To those who have investigated the facts, the case has, for decades, seemed unchallengeable…”

Richard McCormack, reporting in the Alliance for American Manufacturing blog, states that many of America’s problems can be traced to the decline in manufacturing. In the aftermath of the Baltimore riots, he notes, “For generations, tens of thousands of Baltimore workers living in the iconic row-houses of densely populated neighborhoods went to work in nearby factories…Now, for the first time in 300 years, Baltimore’s population makes nothing, save for processed sugar at the 93-year-old Domino Sugar factory, the last large manufacturing plant remaining in the city…As the factories left, the economy collapsed.”

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“Massachusetts is awarding a contract to build rail cars to CNR Changchun Railway Vehicles, a Chinese state-owned company, a subordinate of China CNR Corporation Ltd… The company was able to bid low enough to get this contract because of Chinese government subsidies such as grants, tax breaks, loans, and debt forgiveness.

“This deal is a problem for two reasons. First, US companies cannot compete on a level playing field against companies that are subsidized by governments. China has a national focus on gaining key, strategic industries, and applies national resources as necessary to accomplish this. They understand the long-term value of being able to make a living as a country. Unfortunately they have been overdoing it, and running a very large trade surplus, which sets the rest of the world’s economy out of balance.

“Second, this deal uses taxpayer dollars to undercut the long-term competitiveness of American companies that do the same work. They don’t get this contract, and the Chinese company gains a foothold in the US — with a factory and supply chain and in-country expertise — and as is able to compete for even more future business as a result. Again, this all done with US and Massachusetts taxpayer dollars. The solution is not to ban non-US companies from bidding on such contracts. The solution is to be smart, and strategic and recognize that other countries have national plans to develop their own industries for their own national interests and we should as well.”

The Information technology & Innovation Foundation  calls for action:

“Over the last 15 years the U.S. manufacturing sector has declined significantly compared to those of competitor nations. In the face of this decline, congressional action is needed more than ever to reduce the effective corporate tax rate; to boost investment incentives, including for R&D; to better enforce trade rules globally; and to support manufacturing innovation and workforce development.”

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American economic freedom declines

The United States is becoming less free economically, according to Canada’s Fraser Institute for Economic Freedom.  The information was released in the organization’s 2015 Annual Report, which measures the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries are supportive of economic freedom.

According to the recently released study,

“Throughout the period from 1970 to 2000, the United States ranked as the world’s freest OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development] nation (generally the third freest economy overall behind only Hong Kong and Singapore). The chain-linked summary rating of the United States in 2000 was 8.65. By 2005, the US rating had slipped to 8.22. The slide has continued. The 7.73 chain-linked rating of the United States in 2013 was more than 0.9 of a unit lower than the 2000 rating. While other nations have also declined since 2000, the decline in economic freedom in the United States has been more than three times greater than the average.”

The problems presented by America’s economic freedom decline are more than just temporary.

According to the report, “…a one-point decline in the… rating is associated with a reduction in the long-term growth of GDP of between 1.0 and 1.5 percentage points …This implies that, unless policies undermining economic freedom are reversed, the future annual growth of the US economy will be only about half its historic average of 3%.”

The Fraser report notes that the most significant reversals in U.S. economic freedom have been in the areas of legal system and protection of property rights, freedom to trade internationally, and regulation. The increased use of eminent domain was particularly cited. “…it is clear that the increased use of eminent domain to transfer property to powerful political interests, the ramifications of the wars on terrorism and drugs, and the violation of the property rights of bondholders in the auto-bailout case have weakened the US tradition of rule of law. These factors surely contributed to the sharp decline in the legal system area.”

While the United States’ reversal is particularly glaring, the rest of the world has not progressed as hoped. “While economic freedom has generally risen globally since 1980, there has been a modest reversal of the trend since 2000. …the average rating for the original OECD nations has fallen by 0.26 of a point since 2000.”

Fraser notes that the cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to enter markets and compete, and security of the person and privately owned property. The report used 42 “data points” to construct a summary index and to measure the degree of economic freedom in five broad areas:

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  1. legal structure and security of property rights;

3 access to sound money;

4 freedom to trade internationally; and

5 regulation of credit, labor, and business.

Hong Kong and Singapore were found to have the most open economies. New Zealand, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, Jordan, Ireland, Canada, and the United Kingdom round out the top 10.  The United States came in 16th, Japan 26, Germany 29, South Korea 39, Italy 68, France 70, Mexico 93, Russia 99, China 111, India 114, and Brazil 118. The 10 lowest-rated countries are countries are: Angola, Central African Republic, Zimbabwe, Algeria, Argentina, Syria, Chad, Libya, the Republic of Congo, and, in last place, Venezuela.

Fraser’s research indicates that Economic freedom plays a large role both in the prosperity of a nation’s population and in other areas of “well-being.”

“Nations in the top quartile of economic freedom had an average per-capita GDP of $38,601 in 2013, compared to $6,986 for bottom quartile nations. In the top quartile, the average income of the poorest 10% was $9,881, compared to $1,629 in the bottom quartile in 2013. Interestingly, the average income of the poorest 10% in the most economically free nations is about 50% greater than the overall average income in the least free nations. Life expectancy is 80.1 years in the top quartile compared to 63.1 years in the bottom quartile. Political and civil liberties are considerably higher in economically free nations than in unfree nations.”

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The curious case of Ceuta

As Russian forces expand their presence in Syria, where they currently possess a major naval base in Tartus, another site has become an asset to Moscow’s growing sea power.

Ceuta, a city of only seven square miles, occupies a strategic peninsula off the Moroccan coast at the east end of the Strait of Gibraltar. Control was transferred from Arab hands to Portugal in 1415, and then to Spain in 1580.

As part of Spain, the city is in NATO territory.  However, it is regularly hosting Russian naval vessels. According to the authoritative Jamestown Foundation “On August 5, 2015, four Russian warships—the missile cruiser Moskva, the escort ship Pytlivy, the large sea tanker Ivan Bubnovand Shakhtyor, a rescue tug—docked at the Mediterranean port of Ceuta, a Spanish exclave in North Africa, claimed by Morocco, and located just south of Gibraltar, across the Strait… This port visit was followed, on August 26, by the arrival of the diesel-electric submarine Novorossiysk and, one day later, an SB-36-class tugboat … This marks the 12th such port visit this year; 13 took place over all of 2014. Russian warships bunker and take water and other supplies at Ceuta, while their crews enjoy shore leave.”

This is not a brand-new development.  Common Sense  notes that Russian naval vessels “have been regularly visiting Ceuta since 2010 at a relatively constant rate of 10 to 15 port calls per year.”

Some have speculated  that Spain’s motives may include the financial boost provided by the visits, and a slap at the United Kingdom, which counts nearby Gibraltar as an overseas territory.

The Heritage Foundation has sharply criticized Spain’s dalliance with Russia’s navy. “Spain possesses two sovereign enclaves called Ceuta and Melilla that border Morocco. They are both sizable cities, with populations of 73,000 and 79,000, respectively. They are legally part of Spain, and they are the only two European Union (EU) cities located in mainland Africa. They are also part of the Schengen Agreement and the eurozone. The Russian navy has been using their port facilities for years.
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“On April 28, during the same week that the EU announced a new round of sanctions against Russia, Spain played host to the Russian destroyer Vice Admiral Kulakov at Ceuta. During its stay, the destroyer took on nearly 740 tons of fuel and 100 tons of water…Spain’s policy of allowing the Russian navy to use Ceuta in North Africa is also hypocritical in relation to its reluctance to allow visits by NATO ships to or from the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar directly to or from Spanish ports. Therefore, under certain circumstances Spain would rather have a Russian ship visit a Spanish port than a NATO ship. In addition, Spanish authorities routinely deny any request by military aircraft from NATO members that arrives or departs the Gibraltar airfield and overflies or lands in Spain.”

The U.S. Naval Institute reports that “…the Russian Navy is pivoting back into the same European waters it became very familiar with during the Cold War. Russia apparently is deploying, and intends to continue to deploy, its navy into the vacuum created by the United States’ absence in the Mediterranean Sea.”

Russia is also involving its ally China in its assertion of naval power in the Mediterranean.  During May, it conducted joint maneuvers with Chinese naval vessels. It has also engaged in similar joint maneuvers with Beijing’s naval forces in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

The Kremlin is flexing its new, muscular armed forces across the world, including Latin America, where it has returned to Cold War era facilities.  As noted in the Daily Signal  “Russian military spending has seen dramatic increases. As of 2013, its military budget had “more than doubled over the last decade. Through the first quarter of 2015, defense spending ‘was more than double what the government had originally budgeted, at over 9 percent of the quarterly GDP.’ Conversely, U.S. national defense spending as percent of GDP dropped to an estimated 3.3 percent in 2015 after reaching a high of 4.7 percent in 2010, according to the Office of Management and Budget… one thing remains certain: Russia is repositioning its naval assets with NATO in mind.”

 

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Washington: spending more, achieving less

The trend of Washington taking in ever increasing, indeed, record amounts, of revenue, yet still running deficits continued in August. The U.S. Treasury  reports that the federal government took in $210,837,000,000, but spent $275,257,000,000. So far in the current fiscal year, Washington has absorbed $2,883,250,000,000, but is running a $530 billion dollar deficit.

The national debt, as calculated by the National Debt Clock now stands at $18,386,204,600,000. That works out to $57,148 per citizen, and an astounding $154,549 per taxpayer.

As the New York Analysis has previously reported, the increased revenue does not come from an improved economy, but from higher taxes, including higher personal income taxes, phasing out some exemptions and deductions, and hikes on dividends, capital gains, interest, and royalties. The U.S. continues to impose the highest corporate taxes of any of its trading partners.

According to the Cost of Government Center, “The total cost of government in 2014 was 51 percent of the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP). [Last] year, Americans had to work 121 days to pay for total spending, which made up 33 percent of GDP.  Americans worked 81 days to pay for federal spending and 40 days to pay for state and local spending. To pay for regulatory costs, Americans had to work 42 days to meet federal regulations and 23 days to meet state regulations. In total, regulatory costs amount to a full 17 percent of GDP.”

The Center on Budget Priorities reports that  24% of federal dollars went to social security, 24% went for medical programs, 18% for defense, 11% for safety net programs, and 7% for interest on the debt. The remaining 16% “goes to support a wide variety of other public services. These include providing health care and other benefits to veterans and retirement benefits to retired federal employees, assuring safe food and drugs, protecting the environment, and investing in education, scientific and medical research, and basic infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and airports. A very small slice — about 1 percent of the total budget — goes to non-security programs that operate internationally, including programs that provide humanitarian aid.”

Federal spending in 2010 totaled $3,618,000,000,000. Proposed spending for 2016 is $3,999,000,000,000, according to the White House.

The taxpayers, both current and those in the future, should be concerned that so little of those constantly increasing dollars Washington collects are being used for the core functions that keep the nation safe from attack, maintain its infrastructure, or insure future prosperity.
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The Washington Post  notes that “The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has calculated that an additional $1.6 trillion should be spent on infrastructure by 2020. A 2010 report by the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs estimated that an additional $134 billion to $262 billion must be spent every year through 2035 to rebuild and improve roads, rail systems and air transportation.

Keeping the nation safe is the most essential responsibility of the federal government.  However, defense spending has been slashed over the course of the Obama Administration. Politifact.com notes that military spending constituted 20.1 percent of the federal budget in 2010, but an estimated 15.9 percent in 2015. And over the same span, national-security spending fell from 4.6 percent of gross domestic product to 3.3 percent. Those cuts came at a time when threats from Russia, China, Iran and North Korea expanded greatly.

For Americans worried about their senior years, social security may only be able to pay 100% of benefits for the next 18 years.  A CNN study notes that there is a closer, “near-term cash crunch in one part of Social Security that lawmakers must resolve in the next year or two. The trust fund for Social Security disability benefits, which is separate from the fund for retirement benefits, is on track to be insolvent — most likely by the end of 2016 but no later than 2017.”

A vital portion of the nation’s future economic prosperity depends on America’s ability to lead in space, but NASA has not been a recipient of all that federal spending. In 2010, the space agency budget  was $18,724,000,000. The projected figure for 2016 is $18.5 billion.

Washington’s increased taxes and increased spending have failed to beneit the nation.

 

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Why is the White House so intent on passage of the flawed Iran deal?

The White House’s intense push to have the Iran nuclear agreement ratified raises significant questions as to what Mr. Obamas goals are.

There is little doubt that the deal is significantly flawed, from the perspective of those seeking to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Due to that reality and statements by Iranian leaders indicating they will not uphold their end of the bargain, several senior and influential Democrats, close allies of the President, have chosen not to endorse the measure.

Mr. Obama’s unusually keen desire to enact the pact extends to the legally questionable tactic of not labelling it a treaty, which it clearly is, in order to avoid the Constitutional requirement of gaining a two-thirds majority in the Senate.  (Black’s Law Dictionary defines a “treaty”as “A compact made between two or more independent nations with a view to the public welfare.” There is little legal reason to define the Iran agreement as anything other than a treaty.)

The most optimistic interpretation and fulfillment of the agreement’s provision still allows Iran to develop nuclear weapons and the missiles to launch them within the relatively near future.  Given the Ayatollah Khamenei’s recent pledge to wipe out Israel within 25 years, that alone should induce the White House to pull back. Instead, working with Senate Democrats who remain allied with the President on the matter, procedural steps are being formulated to filibuster against any resolution of opposition to it.

Indisputably, Iran will obtain an extraordinary financial windfall as a result of the measure. Estimates are that $150 billion will be released in just the first six months. Unfortunately, nothing in the deal prevents the use of those funds to finance Tehran’s robust and far-flung support for terrorism. Of particular note for America is the fact that a  portion of those terrorist activities occur within its own hemisphere, as outlined several weeks ago by the Menges organization’s America’s Report. http://www.theamericasreport.com/2015/08/11/dangerous-military-project-supported-by-iran-likely-to-be-strengthened-as-iran-obtains-sanctions-relief/.

Of course, Iran’s main focus remains within the Islamic world. The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) https://armedservices.house.gov/ outlined Tehran’s terrorist activities:

“Iran’s support of rogue regimes, proxies, terrorists, and criminal organizations is one of its main strategies to support its revolutionary ideology and increase its dominance in the Middle East.  Malign activities are focused on Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria; as well as illicit activities in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the United States. The intent of these activities is to assert Iran’s influence over certain governments in the Middle East, and challenge Israel and Western countries’ influence and dominance.

Network of Terrorist Groups, Criminal Entities, and Insurgent Organizations are active in:

Afghanistan: Iran uses cash payments to support political candidates in Afghanistan.  Iran also supports the Taliban with cash and arms to counter U.S. and Western influence in Afghanistan.
Bahrain: Iran supports Shia factions in opposition to the Government of Bahrain.
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Israel and Lebanon: Lebanese Hezbollah – designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization since 1997 – is Iran’s primary proxy organization, where it takes advantage of “millions of dollars, training, weapons and modern equipment” provided by Iran.  Iran continues to supply Hezbollah with a range of weapons to include modern artillery, anti-ship and anti-tank capabilities, and up to 100,000 rockets and missiles with the objective of targeting Israel.  Iran also arms, funds, and trains Hamas as a proxy to attack Israel with both rockets and missile technology it supplies.

Iraq: Iran also uses cash payments to fund political candidates in Iraq. Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) trains, equips, and supports Shia militias.  IRGC Quds Force commanders support many Shiite militias in operations in Iraq.  Many of these are the same Shia militias that killed US military service members in Iraq- numerous U.S. military personnel were casualties in Iraq due to Iranian activities, including high-powered improvised explosive devices.

Saudi Arabia: Iranian-supported Hezbollah maintains political and military wings in Saudi Arabia where their commander, Ahmed al-Mughassil, masterminded the 1996 Khobar Towers attack that killed 19 U.S. Service Members.  Iran has also launched cyber-attacks against Saudi Arabia.

Syria: As Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah provides military aid and advises the Assad regime.  Iran also directly employs its IRGC forces in Syria.

Yemen: Iran continues its support of the Shiite Houthi rebellion in Yemen with arms and other aid.

United States: In addition to the Iranian-backed plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador in Washington D.C., Lebanese Hezbollah, a proxy terrorist organization of Iran, fundraises in the United States.  The largest Hezbollah fundraising scheme – that raised millions for the group – was broken up in the United States in 2002 as part of Operation Smokescreen.

Cyber Activities: Iran’s leaders have said the nuclear deal will have no effect on malign activities, including cyber.  Iran’s cyber activity and investments are designed to provide an asymmetric advantage for the regime.  Iran reportedly conducted cyber operations in 2012 against Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, Saudi Aramco, and erased data on 75 percent of the company computers.  A recent report by the Norse Corporation and AEI uncovered an extensive dark-web of cyber-attacks stemming from Iran.  The report detailed infrastructure dedicated to malicious cyber activity against foreign targets, including the United States, which escalated by over 100 percent during the period of the Norse study.

Ballistic Missiles: Under the deal, Iran’s ballistic missile program, including ICBM development, will become an even greater threat.  Iran will be allowed to maintain the largest inventory of ballistic missiles in the Middle East.  Iran built this capability despite a “crippling” sanctions regime.  Disregarding warnings from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey that “under no circumstances should we relieve pressure on Iran relative to ballistic missile capabilities and arms trafficking,” the Iran deal ends restrictions there were on missile development and testing within 8 years and allows Iran to cooperate with Russia, China, and North Korea to more quickly field more dangerous ballistic missiles with ever greater ranges. ”

The lop-sided (in favor of Iran) nature of the deal, Iran’s apparent intention not to comply with the generally understood terms of several provisions, and the dangerous use of released funds raise questions concerning the White House’s intense support for the measure.