It’s been awhile since my last article, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t written any. I have dozens that I simply haven’t submitted. Every time I write one something else comes up that makes my last one seem old news. I just can’t keep up with what a mess this country is in right now and our lost role as a world leader. We have rapidly become the guy who gets the sand kicked in his face.
On the home front this year, Obamacare is emerging as the tax-sucking giant most of us knew it was. It’s hard to believe we’ve allowed this corrupt law to ever pass. Taxpayers are kicking in small fortunes, some large fortunes, to make a law that was destined to failure forced to try to work. After spending billions, it’s still covering fewer than those it was supposed to cover, and those who signed up are now paying more than the coverage they had before.
How much do we have to sacrifice before we make this debacle go away?
And the Internal Revenue Service was hired, at our expense, to pull the money from our pockets to fund this health coverage Obamanation. But the IRS can’t even help taxpayers with their returns. It was reported the IRS hung up on 8 million calls, probably much more in truth, and they whine they don’t have enough money to operate efficiently.
First of all, no government agency operates efficiently, especially that one. And it’s even more frightening they’re in charge of our money with Gestapo powers and no oversight. Don’t do what we do, do what we say, or else. Which presidential candidate will step up with the guts to push through the flat tax or at the very least put the IRS in its place?
Where does one even begin with overseas and the obvious war on Christians? There are those who argue to let them fight their fight and leave us out of it. And there’s some merit to that. But the world is intertwined.
Case in point is Hillary Clinton’s latest oops that her foundation forgot to account for $145 million from a uranium company in Canada, and now Russia owns 20 percent of American uranium and Bill Clinton gets paid $500,000 to give a speech in Russia about what? Now these dots may not connect, but President Barack Obama has allowed old Vladimir Putin to run amok over Ukraine. Hmmm? Interesting that all of the above players are also cut from the same ideological cloth. And if I got any of my facts wrong it doesn’t matter because tomorrow they’ll change anyway.
However, the point being, to say let them wipe themselves out over there won’t work when we have top officials in our country playing footsy with the very people who hate us and are trying to kill us. Like the Ebola virus, the infection will spread and spread and ultimately make its way to our shores in a big and deathly way. We better hurry and flex our muscles and show we’re still the boss or that little junior varsity ISIS team will be scoring touchdowns at the expense of American lives just down the street. Like in Solvang. Solvang?
As a side note, my feeling about all those who want to travel over there and join ISIS, I say let them. Buy them the ticket. That way all those nut cases will be in one place when we bomb ’em. We won’t have to waste as much ammunition. But of course, this is assuming Obama will eventually grow a set and let them know we’re back.
While the world is in a death spiral, he’s giving speeches about the critical mass we’re facing over climate change — the same speeches, by the way, that Al Gore gave some 20 years ago, and none of those dire predictions have come to pass. But our commander and wimp won’t accept that a bunch of idiots are slaughtering innocent Christians every day while he’s preaching fear that the end is near because it’s raining too much on one coast and dry on the other. Maybe he’s waiting for the once so-called global warming to heat up the Iraqi desert to the point where the bad guys will just fry up and he won’t have to deal with it.
And just a few more points about back here at home. We used to have laws and they were enforced and when you did something wrong you went to jail. That’s not the case anymore. Unless you kill someone, and even that’s questionable, you can rest assured not much will happen to you. New York is looking to decriminalize some laws, including urinating in the streets, littering, excessive noise, drinking alcohol, disobeying parking signs — sounds like Santa Barbara. And just when I was writing this, Baltimore blew up. Obama, the first half-black president, in office for six years, is blaming Congress for not doing something about it. When it comes to blame he has the guts to not take any.
There’s so much wrong and getting worse. America and the world are going backward. The Middle East is a land of savages. One beheading should be enough to turn anyone’s stomach, but those killers are making it a drive through. European countries are being swarmed with refugees, which using a cliché is a huge recipe for disaster. You can already see the impact of the Muslims in France and England and the Turks in Germany.
And we have our own problem here with the massive flood of people from the south. This kind of unfettered incursion will not be able to sustain itself and you can attach all the pretty ideological language you want to it. But the reality is, it’s an invasion and if we tried the reverse on Mexico we’d all end up in prison. There would be no free handouts or coddling or diaper changing. Mexico is so corrupt it makes Chicago look good (almost) and they blame us for everything anyway. Enforce the damn border!
As always, I can rant all I want, but what is the solution? The answer is quite simple: leadership. We the people elect politicians not to make careers living off our dollars but rather to strengthen and protect and make this country as good and as safe a place as possible. When half the politicians want to do nothing more than keep taxing the people and giving those taxes away and squandering the rest on self-preservation, well, that’s not a good policy. Stop with the political games, unite and care about the people and the country that voted for you.
And the one way to get things kickstarted (I know, cliché) is common sense. I wish someone would start using it.
— Henry Schulte of Santa Barbara owns and operates Dos Pueblos Ranch. He has been politically active in the community for years. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.