Below you will find some commentary about, and links to, current events, news articles, and opinion pieces recommended by Dave. The links to the right provide News You Need from previous months. While you read this, these issues are shaping the future for you and your children. You shouldn't trust someone else to think about them for you, and you certainly shouldn't trust your congressional seat to someone who hasn't been thinking, writing, and teaching about them for years.
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NEWS YOU NEED FROM MEXICO
26 February 2010
Are you really still depending on the news media for news? If so, then you missed the fact that several cartels have declared war on each other just across the Texas border, resulting in running gun battles between scores of fighters from various criminal groups and government agencies. Some Mexican government officials are reportedly moving their families to the US side of the border. The U.S. Consular General has temporarily closed the U.S. consulate in Reynosa and has advised against unnecessary travel in the Matamoros/Reynosa area. The US Department of State has issued a new travel advisory that says in part: "Some recent Mexican army and police confrontations with drug cartels have resembled small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and grenades. Large firefights have taken place in towns and cities across Mexico, but occur mostly in northern Mexico, including Ciudad Juarez, Tijuana, Chihuahua City, Nogales, Matamoros, Reynosa and Monterrey."
HILLARY SEES DEBT AS NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUE
February 25, 2010
Hillary Clinton is now saying that "we have to address this deficit and the debt of the United States as a matter of national security not only as a matter of economics... the moment of reckoning cannot be put off forever". Geez... you think? I have been telling audiences for months that the liberals would soon begin calling the debt a national security issue. This will allow President Obama and a liberal Congress to take extraordinary steps to confiscate private wealth using the tax system. Socialism must have perfect equality. If it cannot be obtained by redistribution to make everyone rich, it will be obtained by stealing from most to make all poor.
US SENATOR WARNS OF FINANCIAL MELTDOWN RISK
February 24, 2010
The US is heading for a debt-driven “financial meltdown” within five to seven years, according to Judd Gregg, the outgoing Republican senator for New Hampshire. I hope to be in this Congressional race after the primary, March 2nd. But if I am not, at least you have been warned. Every bell, alarm and red light in our financial system is warning of a national crisis driven by debt. The solution will require a radical restructuring of the US government, with 30% less spending every year, and additional cuts to repay the debt and prevent the interest from crippling our economy. Our elected representatives need to get the American people ready for this change. We are either at the end of liberalism or the end of America as we know it. Your vote can determine the direction of our history and our destiny.
THE REAL DANGER OF DEBT
23 February 2010
This article is a bit dense in places -- but the overall thrust is both clear and alarming. The debt is the most important problem we face because "the country might be becoming in important respects ungovernable. The perfection of interest-group politics has brought about a situation in which, to exaggerate just a bit, taxes can't be increased, spending programs can't be cut, and new spending is irresistible." The other candidates in this race are changing their themes - beginning to emphasize the danger of the debt.
MCINTYRE ENDORSED BY BAYLOR YOUNG CONSERVATIVES
21 February 2010
As reported by the Baylor Lariat, "recently, the Young Conservatives of Texas decided, as an organization, to support Dave McIntyre (to) challenge Rep. Chet Edward's District 17 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives". Sugar Land freshman Cody Orr really hit the nail on the head when he observed that "Dave McIntyre (has) the best background. He has the most experience in issues of foreign policy and I feel that he is definitely equipped to lead our country in a good direction. He is going to vote the conservative line and he is going to be at the forefront of ensuring other people do as well."
THIS TIME IT IS DIFFERENT
20 February 2010
Many Democrats and some Republicans (to include some in the CD-17 primary race) insist on treating our massive and growing debt like smaller debts of the past - an inconvenience we can grow out of with the right tax policy. But experts are lining up to argue that "this time it is different." Benefits written in to law will likely grow the debt by another $13 trillion by 2020. As this brief article from Investor's Business Daily explains "Those who think the U.S. is special and the elementary rules of finance and economics don't apply to us are wrong."
WHAT THE NATION'S BUDGET WOES MEAN TO YOU
17 February 2010
"Within 12 years…the largest item in the federal budget will be interest payments on the national debt," said former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker. "[They are] payments for which we get nothing.
ANOTHER EXPERT WARNS OF DEBT AS A THREAT
16 February 2010
This guy is reading from my script: "The US must fix its growing debt problems or risk a new financial crisis. Thomas Hoenig, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, warned on Tuesday, adding a mounting deficit could spur inflation... “Stunning” deficit projections were putting political pressure on the Fed to keep interest rates low, infringing on its independence at the risk of inflation, he said. 'Without pre-emptive action, the US risks its next crisis,' Mr Hoenig said in a speech at the Pew-Peterson Commission on Budget Reform... On Tuesday he said that the worst option for the US was a scenario where the government “knocks on the central bank’s door” and asks it to print more money. Instead, the administration must find ways to cut spending and generate revenue. He called for a “reallocation of resources” and noted that the process would be painful and politically inconvenient."
EVERYBODY ELSE STARTS TO GET IT...
15 February 2010
...except for the other candidates in this race. Since Day One of this campaign I have been arguing: 1) as a strategist I see things with a long view while the other candidates take a short term business perspective, 2) as a strategist, I see the debt as the major challenge we face, and 3) the other candidates in this race think we can grow the economy out of this debt mess. The author of this AP article argues that I am right and they are wrong. He says in part: "For the U.S., the crushing weight of its debt threatens to overwhelm everything the federal government does, even in the short-term, best-case financial scenario - a full recovery and a return to prerecession employment levels... The government already has made so many promises to so many expanding "mandatory" programs that just keeping these commitments, without major changes in taxing and spending, will lead to deficits that cannot be sustained."
I HATE IT WHEN I AM RIGHT
10 February 2010
If I were the kind of person who said "I told you so," then this is when I would say it. As a strategist, I have seen the looming national debt as our biggest national threat for years. It was the first issue I addressed on the first day of my campaign. Now lots of other folks are catching on... lots of folks except for the other candidates in this race who keep proposing solutions that worked a decade ago. THIS TIME IT IS DIFFERENT BECAUSE THE DEBT IS TOO BIG. Read what David Malpass and Eric Singer have to say in Forbes about how the debt will suck cash from your pocket.
WHEN THE DEBT WILL START TO HURT
10 February 2010
Right now a national debt of $14 trillion sounds bad, but we don't feel it on a daily basis. That's because borrowing money to pay that debt isn't costing us anything. Why? Because people worldwide are so worried about economic instability that they'll buy our bonds even at almost zero interest. Can that last forever? We have been flooding banks with money to keep interest rates low, hoping that will tempt businesses to borrow, use the money to grow, and create jobs. If we keep this up too long, loans will be too easy and inflation will return. So as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke explained recently, the FED will raise interest rates soon - the only question is when. Unfortunately, the moment they raise the prime rate for banks to prevent inflation, the rate we pay to continue borrowing that $14 trillion will go up too. Then starts a vicious cycle: keep inflation down and the debt grows on its own; keep the debt down and inflation takes off. And even if we get the balance exactly right, business will be trying to raise capital while the government continues to float its $14 trillion loan. This must drive interest rates up too. So growing jobs will be very hard while the debt remains very large. There is only one solution -- focus on the debt and cut spending. Which is what I have been saying for months. The other candidates have a different view. They are wrong.
EVEN NBC GETS IT ON THE DEBT DISASTER
10 February 2010
"We are in uncharted waters" according to these interviews with national leaders. Our future, our economy, and our national security are all endangered buy the massive national debt that is growing by the hour. Old solutions like growing the economy and taking in more taxes from more jobs will NO LONGER WORK IN THIS NEW AND DANGEROUS SITUATION. No nation can survive when it owes more money than it makes and its policies are making it worse. See this brief video report and understand that I am the only candidate taking this issue seriously. NO MORE BUSINESS AS USUAL.
COMING SOON: SOME COLLAPSE DOWN THE ROAD
08 February 2010
The key difference between the Republican field for CD-17 has finally become clear. As the only candidate with experience in national issues, I alone believe that the biggest problem faced by the US is the rising and unsustainable debt. We all agree on Constitutional primacy, conservative values, and the inadequacy of liberal policies in general and Chet Edwards' leadership in particular. And we are all concerned about jobs, security, protection of life, the 2d Amendment, and other traditional conservative issues. But some others believe that we can create enough jobs to generate enough taxes to dig us out of the fiscal hole we are in. I am the only one saying that that we cannot avoid catastrophe unless we find the will and way to cut spending. Turns out that the Director of the Congressional Budget Office, and Investors Business Daily author Mark Steyn both agree with me.
