Flying illegals home would be 99.5 percent cheaper than Obama’s plan

From Ernest Istook via Washington Times --

We taxpayers are expected to house, feed, clothe and care for almost 30,000 illegal aliens for a full year, according to the White House’s official request. That’s a small city.

Instead, we could fly all of them home for one-half of 1 percent of the $3.8 billion that President Obama proposes we spend. That’s a savings of 99.5 percent!

Most of his proposal is to pay living expenses. At the unofficial reported cost of $250 per person per day, President Barack Obama is proposing we spend $1.8 billion “to provide appropriate care for unaccompanied children.” That works out to 19,726 minors for a year. (The official term for them, written into federal statute, is “undocumented alien children.” Not undocumented immigrants, migrants or refugees. Those other terms are efforts at propaganda.)

In addition, Obama wants another $879 million “for detention and removal of apprehended undocumented adults traveling with children,” and “alternatives to detention programs” for these adults. He blends “removal” with “detention” to make it impossible to determine how many removals are planned.

If the money is all for detention, then the $250 per person reveals the plan is to house 9,632 adults for a year at taxpayers’ expense.

Combine 19,726 minors with 9,632 adults and you have 29,358 people. But it gets worse. The request is for a “supplemental appropriation.” In budget lingo, that typically means it’s for the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. If these funds don’t cover a full year, either the cost per person is much higher or the number of people is much higher.

If the daily cost per person is less than $250, then the small city of illegal aliens we’re supporting will be larger than 29,358.

Although Obama asks for lots of money to take care of people permanently, he gives zero details about a timeframe for deporting or repatriating any of the persons involved.

The $250 a day figure compares with the $667 one-way cost of an airline ticket from McAllen, Texas, to Guatemala City, Guatemala, according to both Orbitz and Priceline. The combined airfare for 29,358 passengers would be $19.6 million. That is one-half of 1 percent of President Obama’s overall $3.8 billion request. Volume discounts and government rates would yield even lower fares. But even without discounts, sending everyone home right away saves taxpayers 99.5 percent!

It’s also closer to fly them from McAllen to Guatemala City than to Murietta, California. Only 1,297 miles compared to 1,549 miles. And no protesters.

But what about the red-tape processing that Obama says gets in ther way? We know the president skirts inconvenient laws when he wants to do so. And although there is some red tape for the minors, there is no federal law that requires officials to drag their feet on deporting the thousands of adults newly arrived from Central America. And no red tape on the accompanied minors. All of them can be placed on planes pronto, arriving home far more quickly than it took them to journey to Texas. And arriving there more quickly than flying to California.

Regarding the unaccompanied juveniles, officials such as Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson don’t seem to have read the law. Johnson told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the top priority is “doing right by the children.” Actually, the law states the top priority is to repatriate those children to their country of origin.

Before the lanague of that controversial 2008 statute outlines the red-tape processing, it explicitly states the goal of that process, namely that “the Secretary of Homeland Security, in conjunction with the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, shall develop policies and procedures to ensure that unaccompanied alien children in the United States are safely repatriated to their country of nationality or of last habitual residence.”

That bears repeating: The statute says the goal is that the unaccompanied alien children “are safely repatriated to their country of nationality or of last habitual residence.”

Interestingly, that law foresees a problem if minors are released in the U.S. to custody of fellow illegal aliens. The statute requires officials to make sure that a potential custodian is someone who is trained to recognize his “responsibility to attempt to ensure the child’s appearance at all immigration proceedings.” Obviously, that disqualifies anyone who himself is in the country illegally.

We don’t have to borrow and spend another $3.8 billion to fix the problems created by President Obama’s irresponsible promotion of amnesty. It’s far cheaper to follow the law and to send people home. That also is the best way to discourage other people from following in their footsteps. 

​Hear Ernest’s daily radio show, noon to 3 p.m. Eastern, online daily at www.kzlsam.com. Get Ernest’s free email newsletter. Sign up here.

Art credit: amsimaging.com

Betsy McCaughey is a former Lt. Gov. of New York, author, and frequent columnist and TV news guest. In the months preceding the passage of Obamacare in Congress, McCaughey was one of the critical resources for patriots across the country, who relied on her analyses to prepare for visits to their Representatives and Senators, calls to the congressional switchboard, etc. She published another analysis the other day in the New York Post about the latest document dump of ... over 1,200 pages of NEW regulations on Obamacare. Here is her complete article: 

-----------------------------------------

ObamaCare: Death by paperwork 

On July 3, with Americans preparing to celebrate freedom, the Obama administration reduced freedom by adding 1,296 pages of new regulations to ObamaCare.

It was a classic pre-holiday document dump, publishing the mind-numbing rules in the Federal Register on the eve of Independence Day, when few were likely to be watching. So much for transparency.

ObamaCare regulations compel doctors and their office staff, business owners, local officials and virtually everyone else subject to the law to spend hours filling out paperwork with no pay for their labor. It’s a colossal theft.

Now four years old, ObamaCare imposes 159 million hours of paperwork a year on the public. That’s the administration’s own estimate, undoubtedly a lowball.

Even so, it’s up by 48 million hours over last year, when fewer regulations had been rolled out. And there’s more to come.

Among the July 3 rules is one that compels doctors who take Medicare to report 18 different clinical measurements on their patients, such as whether they are overweight and have been counseled about weight control.

Doctors who fail to do it will get whacked with lower payments starting in 2015.

The regulators estimate that this single report could take as long as 108 minutes per patient and consume 5.4 million hours a year nationwide. That’s time that could be spent treating patients or calling them to remind them to take their meds.

Instead, the federal bureaucracy is confiscating those hours to serve its own ends.

Small-business owners get hit hard, too. Notably, restaurateurs face 622,000 hours of work to comply with ObamaCare’s menu-labeling rules.

The American Action Forum, a public-policy organization, notes that ObamaCare is in a class by itself, imposing almost three times as much paperwork as the notoriously complex Dodd-Frank financial regulations, and more than 10 times as much as under the Sarbanes-Oxley financial-reform law.

The Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, is the biggest culprit, responsible for 90 million hours a year of ObamaCare paperwork chores. Most are foisted on hospitals, doctors, insurers and local governments.

Because it includes the IRS, Treasury is the No. 2 culprit, with paperwork requirements up 23 percent this year. The IRS is ObamaCare’s chief enforcer; paperwork misery will continue to soar, especially if and when the employer mandate goes into effect.

ObamaCare gives the IRS 46 new functions, including collecting new taxes and exchanging information about you, your family and your income with HHS and state insurance exchanges.

For example, the IRS requires employers to report the value of insurance you get through work in a new box on your W-2, even though it’s not taxable (yet).

And dealing with the IRS is no longer a once-a-year affair. Have a baby, change jobs or get a divorce, and the IRS will be recalculating your insurance compliance and eligibility for premium subsidies.

“It’s unprecedented in recent history, the amount of responsibility the IRS is being given in an area that most people don’t think of as an IRS function,” J. Russell George, a tax official, told Congress last March.

The administration plainly doesn’t want to tell the truth about these burdens.

For example, it claims that people who are uninsured or lose coverage will spend 12.6 minutes a year to comply with the individual mandate. Preposterous: Even when the Web sites work, it takes far longer to shop for insurance and report to the IRS that you’re compliant.

On July 4, 1776, when American patriots signed their Declaration of Independence from Great Britain, they recounted the crimes of the tyrannical British king: “He has erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.”

Nearly 2½ centuries later, our own government is eating out our substance with mandatory paperwork.

Not to mention the drag on our economy.

According to the Heritage Foundation’s 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, America is the only country to have lost economic freedom for seven straight years, now ranking 12th behind Hong Kong,
Singapore, Australia, Canada and seven other nations.

“Burdensome and redundant regulations are the most common barriers to the free conduct of entrepreneurial activity,” Heritage cautions.

But some benefit from this out-of-control regulatory state.

“Government bureaucracies like complexity because it keeps them busy and funded,” warns Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett Packard. She laments that “as a result of these regulations on steroids, innovation, business creation and job growth are being stifled.”

Government bureaucrats are stealing our time, our economic growth and our liberty. Don’t count on Washington to fix the problem.

In the end, only an outraged public can put a stop to this regulatory oppression.

Betsy McCaughey is the author of “Beating ObamaCare 2014.”

RNC Picks Cleveland for 2016 National Convention

For Immediate Release

Date: Jul-09-14

Contact: Ralph King
Clevelandteaparty@gmail.com

2016 GOP National Convention in Democrat Stronghold of Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland --  Far from a bastion of conservatism, and in the Democrat's stronghold in Ohio, the RNC has chosen to host their 2016 GOP National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.

The announcement of Cleveland, Ohio being the host city may come as a surprise to many living outside the Cleveland area. But thanks to the hard work, dedication and outstanding presentation of the Cleveland Host Committee, the RNC Site Selection Committee could not have made a better choice.

In stepping outside their comfort zone, the RNC’s bold decision to host the 2016 GOP National Convention in Cleveland, the Democrats backyard in Ohio, shows not only the importance of Ohio in the Presidential election, but also the importance of the vastly outnumbered grassroots conservatives in the northeast Ohio region.

"We are thrilled the RNC has chosen to host the 2016 GOP National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. We welcome them with open arms and look forward to helping make this the best GOP convention ever," stated Ralph King, Co-Founder of the Cleveland Tea Party Patriots.

“In view of the recent primary in Mississippi and the ongoing battle to restore core conservative values in the GOP," continued King,  "this will be a great opportunity for the RNC & Chairman Priebus to show to conservative grassroots activists that they understand that without our support and involvement, victory in 2016 will not be possible."

Currently in formal negotiations with the RNC, the official announcement of Cleveland as the host city is expected to be made at the RNC's meeting in August.

- ## -

The 2016 GOP Convention in Cleveland

Photo credit: cleveland.com

Links of the Day: 

More on the 2016 GOP Convention in Cleveland at The Q

From Five Thirty Eight: Republicans' Choice to Hold 2016 Convention in Cleveland Probably Won't Help Them in Ohio.

FTA: “the mere fact that the Republicans chose Cleveland probably doesn’t say very much about how the Buckeye State is going vote in 2016.”

From Cleveland.com: Congrats on the convention. Here's what you're in for, Cleveland. [Security. Housing. Blocked traffic. And Clevelanders as ambassadors.]

From Cleveland.com: Suburban Cleveland leaders applaud Republican National Convention, hope it spills into surrounding towns

FTA: Suburban Cleveland leaders are welcoming the chance to show off the region during the Republican National Convention in 2016 – and maybe reap some tourism dollars, too.

Said Bay Village Mayor Debbie Sutherland, one of few Republican leaders in Democratic-heavy Cuyahoga County: "All the action is not going to be downtown in Cleveland. This is going to be good for everyone."

# # #

Do we have any borders anymore?

Real Clear Politics reports that 

President Obama on Tuesday requested an additional $3.7 billion for the fiscal year that ends in September, arguing that additional resources are necessary to discourage the recent surge of adults and children seeking illegal and often unsafe pathways into the United States.

This surge of illegal immigrants was planned by the administration. From Free Republic, which reproduces the document calling for bids to escort illegal “alien children”:

On January 29, 2014, the Federal Government posted an ad on their BizOpps website seeking escorts for unaccompanied illegal alien children. If this doesn't prove that the entire mess with all the illegals flooding our country was planned by this administration, nothing ever will. Here is the entire document that lays out the "requirements" to become such an escort: . . .

Procurement Type: Request for Information (RFI)/Sources Sought

Title: Escort Services for Unaccompanied Alien Children 

Classification Code: V- Transportation/Travel/Relocation

You can read the entire document here.

NumbersUSA has an interactive map of the US, showing relocations, relocations blocked, and relocation areas under consideration. They also provide phone numbers for each state’s officials who would oversee such relocations, so citizens can let the state know their support of, or opposition to relocation in their backyard. Here are the three for Ohio:

·         State Refugee Coordinator: Jennifer R. Johnson 614.644.1174

·         State Refugee Health Coordinator: Sandra Hollingsworth 614.752.2953

·         ORR State Analyst: Goran Debelnogich 202.260.7143

If you are opposed to providing emergency funds to the administration – which will inevitably extend the crisis – or if you are opposed to providing more funding to an administration that deliberately caused the crisis in the first place, or if you are alarmed about the health crisis involved in the flood of immigrants not properly screened and carrying infection to who-knows-where, let Speaker Boehner and your US Representative hear from you.

The Directory for House Representatives is here. Just click on “O” to see all the Ohio reps.

# # #

Cleveland Gets 2016 Republican National Convention

Art credit: roadtripforfamilies.com

Cleveland.com and Townhall report :

Cleveland Gets 2016 

Republican National Convention

# # #

Education vs Indoctrination: Advanced Placement U.S. History Tests

Art credit:  ethicsalarms.com

Power Line updates via NRO on the latest battle in Education vs Indoctrination:

The teaching of American history is, of course, ground zero in left’s battle to indoctrinate students. And the left is unleashing the ultimate weapon in this battle.

Stanley Kurtz reports:

Although it has barely registered yet in our public debates, the teaching of American history in our high schools has just been seized in what a few sharp-eyed critics rightly call a “curricular coup.” The College Board, the private company that creates the SAT test and the various Advance Placement tests, has issued a new set of guidelines that is about to turn the teaching of American history into exactly the sort of grievance-based pedagogy that [Dinesh] D’Souza decries in his film [America: Imagine the World Without Her].

Leftist academics have finally figured out a way to circumvent state and local control over America’s schools and effectively impose progressive political indoctrination on the entire country. Once the AP U.S. History test demands blame-America-first answers, public and private schools alike will be forced to construct an American history curriculum that “teaches to the test.”

What is the evidence that the “curricular coup” imposes the left’s version of American history? Kurtz reports:

George Washington, a key figure in D’Souza’s film, barely makes an appearance in the new AP U.S. History Guidelines. Figures like Benjamin Franklin and James Madison are completely omitted. The Declaration of Independence is presented chiefly as an illustration of the colonists’ belief in their own superiority.

Slavery and the treatment of Native Americans are at center stage. At times, the presentation of the New Deal and the Reagan era seems to come straight out of a Democratic Party press office.

If you want your child to be admitted to a top quality college, you may soon feel pressure to parrot this line.

In short, as Kurtz says, “The College Board is pushing U.S. history as far to the left as it can get away with at the high school level.” It is thereby “creating a kind of feeder system that perfectly primes students for the more openly ideological training they’ll be getting at college.”

. . .

What is to be done? Kurtz offers this prescription:

Vocal protest at the state and local levels is needed. State legislatures may have to step in to prevent the effective seizure of their curricula by the College Board. Efforts to break the College Board’s monopoly on AP tests may also be in order. Is a market opening up for an alternative set of AP tests?…

Over and above electoral politics, here is something you can do. Join or create a movement to protest and combat the effort of the College Board to impose an ideologically one-sided American history curriculum on our country’s schools.

[Power Line] would add this: fight against the Common Core.

The rest of the article is here.

# # #