In a sane world, Congress would have looked at Tim  Geithner’s  record of tax indiscretions and respectfully informed President Obama that he would have to find another treasury [...]]]> In sane world, President Obama would not have put forward Tim Geithner’s name for Treasury Secretary once it was discovered he had failed to pay all his taxes.

In a sane world, Congress would have looked at Tim  Geithner’s  record of tax indiscretions and respectfully informed President Obama that he would have to find another treasury secretary.

In a sane world, Tim  Geithner  would realize that if even he can run afoul of the IRS, would have pressed upon President Obama to reform tax regulations so that job creators could spend more time creating jobs and less time figuring out their tax liabilities.

In a sane world, our treasury secretary would not have allowed his President to borrow trillions of dollars and squander trillions more.  A responsible treasury secretary would not have boasted that the US would not lose its AAA rating and advocate vigorously for the very policies that lead to the downgrade.

Tim  Geithner’s  team has tried to pressure our bond rating agencies.  Had a private sector business tried to do this it would have been illegal and subject to sanction.  After Geithner successfully secured a “debt and spending now, phantom cuts tomorrow” deal for his president, America’s credit was predictably downgraded.  Tim  Geithner could have used his influence to convince Obama to yield to responsible spending cuts, but chose to champion a borrow and spend course.

Once the scope of Secretary Geithner’s failure began to take shape, he allowed his team to begin questioning the value and competence of the rating agency – an agency private sector businesses are required by law to use, potentially casting a pall over ALL bond markets.  The thundering irresponsibility and thoughtless disregard for the law beggars the imagination.  Hoist by their own petard, the Obama administration once again blames others for the results of their own incompetence.

We have an incompetent president with an incompetent cabinet.  These men and women fundamentally misunderstand the role of the Federal Government in the economy and are utterly unacquainted with how men and women create jobs, pay their bills and care for their families.  Wealthy, arrogant and out of touch, Tim  Geithner’s  staggering failure is President Obama’s staggering failure.  We can defeat President Obama in November of 2012, but Tim  Geithner needs to resign or be fired today.

(St. Louis) – August 5, 2011 – Friday night Standard and Poor’s reduced America’s credit rating from AAA to AA+ with a negative outlook.

From the S&P report:

The outlook on the long-term rating is negative. We could lower the long-term rating to ‘AA’ within the next two years if we see [...]]]> Immediate Release

(St. Louis) – August 5, 2011 – Friday night Standard and Poor’s reduced America’s credit rating from AAA to AA+ with a negative outlook.

From the S&P report:

The outlook on the long-term rating is negative. We could lower the long-term rating to ‘AA’ within the next two years if we see that less reduction in spending than agreed to, higher interest rates, or new fiscal pressures during the period result in a higher general government debt trajectory than we currently assume in our base case.

While I expect our opponents in President Obama’s party to derive all the wrong lessons from this embarrassment, the brutal reality is that the much ballyhooed “victory” of the debt deal did not convince this bond ratings agency that we had begun to master our spending problem.

Washington spends too much money regulating and manipulating the lives of Americans.  It spends too much money rewarding friends and sending the bill to the rest of us.  It spends all it can get its hands on and then puts the rest on a charge card.  The reckoning is on its way, and congress did nothing more than what it always does – spend money today, promise cuts tomorrow.  For decades this has been the case, and the President’s party’s intractable desire for more spending destroyed an opportunity to take appropriate action.

Now, millions of beleaguered Americans will see their earnings further eroded as financial institutions are forced to raise interest rates for loans tied to rates paid by the Federal Government, among other consequences.  As President Obama celebrates his birthday with Hollywood millionaires, we are all watching our great nation fall gravely ill, hollowed out financially by an administration and congress that cares more about paying off its political allies than good stewardship of the people’s purse.

For more information, please email rush@edmartinforcongress.com or call (314) 256-1776.

For more information about Martin’s background and the campaign, visit EdMartinforCongress.com, or follow him on Facebook and Twitter @Ed4USCongress. Contact the campaign office at 314-256-1776.

Legislation to allow President Obama to continue to borrow against the future ability of our children and grandchildren to pay taxes may be such a Pyrrhic victory.  Is guaranteed new debt today [...]]]>

King Pyrrhus, after defeating the Romans, is said to have declared “one more such victory and we shall be undone.”

Legislation to allow President Obama to continue to borrow against the future ability of our children and grandchildren to pay taxes may be such a Pyrrhic victory.  Is guaranteed new debt today with one-tenth the amount of cuts tomorrow a victory for fiscal discipline?  Is leaving Obamacare in place fiscally responsible?  What have we won when the prize is looming tax increases in eighteen months?

Conservatives have already been called terrorists by our vice president – it is not the respect of the other side we have won.  They get to keep spending and we get to hope for spending cuts and pray that tax increases do not happen.

It is a sad, disturbing state of affairs when this embarrassment of a deal is rationally called a victory. I would have voted  “no.” I think the immediate consequences that might befall the economy are less than those consequences of continuing on even with the thin patina of responsibility this bill affords.

The solution is not to shoot our own.  This is a clash of philosophies decades in the making.  Will we become wards of a Federal Government that is demonstrably incompetent at almost everything it does, or will we be free under a limited Federalist system.  Two thirds of the Federal Government, it’s entire salaried bureaucracy, the mainstream media, the academy and a staggering number of Americans are arrayed against those of us who believe our path cannot be sustained, nor is it moral.

The answer is electing more real conservatives to the House and Senate, and to have a real conservative in the White House.  So long as Harry Reid is the Senate Majority Leader and Barack Obama is President, this unsightly legislation is what will have to pass as a victory.

Update: 10/27/2009 Special thanks to Reboot Congress for this video of my signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge at Imo’s Pizza in South County.  Visit Reboot Congress for excellent [...]]]> Update:7/27/2011 With the President demanding more taxes despite the demonstrated harm higher taxes would have on the economy, I wanted to let everyone know my pledge still stands.

Update: 10/27/2009 Special thanks to Reboot Congress for this video of my signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge at Imo’s Pizza in South County.  Visit Reboot Congress for excellent videos of events around town and around the world.

Of the hundreds of Missourians I have talked to over the past several months, not one person has said to me, “Ed, I’m just not paying enough in taxes.”

The working men and women in this district, to the contrary, are deeply concerned that new and higher taxes and fees imposed by Congress will actually stymie business expansion and job creation. For that reason, among many others, I am signing the Americans for Tax Reform Taxpayer Protection Pledge.

Americans for Tax Reform was founded by Grover Norquist in 1985, at the request of President Ronald Reagan. Mr. Norquist will be my guest on Thursday as we travel across the Third District. By Thursday afternoon, folks in Ste. Genevieve, Jefferson and St. Louis counties will have seen me sign a compact with them to never vote for any tax increase as their congressman.

The ATR Taxpayer Pledge I am taking states:

I, Ed Martin, pledge to the taxpayers of the Third District of Missouri, and to the American people that I will:

ONE, oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses; and

TWO, oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.

As your Congressman, I will oppose more than direct tax increases. I will work to ensure that back-door tax hikes like Cap-and-Trade and ObamaCare don’t destroy Missouri’s economic security.

Make no mistake about it: Cap-and-Trade is a tax on all of us. The average Third District family will see our monthly electricity bill go up by more than $100 EVERY MONTH. Many of our Third District families will see their electricity bills go up by more than $300 every month. Russ Carnahan voted for this national energy tax, intentionally choosing to follow Nancy Pelosi’s lead rather than listen to his own constituents.

Local businessman David McArthur rose to national prominence for challenging Russ Carnahan on this issue. When David and Randy McArthur invited their representative to meet with them to learn what this ill-advised legislation would do to them and other small businesses, Russ Carnahan refused, offering a staffer in his place, and that only after he cast his vote!

That’s not the kind of Congressman I will be.

This district needs a representative who will take the time to listen to the smart men and women who make our economy work. This district needs a Congressman who will not conspire with special interests and radical liberals to jack up the cost of doing business.

I will be a Congressman who puts job creation and real economic growth ahead of lobbyists and earmarks. I will be a Congressman who listens to the will of the people, not the will of Washington. And I will be a Congressman who opposes every tax increase in any form.

The current debate over debt limits, deficits and spending cuts are important, but we cannot lose sight of the fact that the budget that will be agreed upon is only binding until the next budget is passed. Though Senators and Representatives speak loftily about trillions cut over ten years, the fact remains that Congress [...]]]>

The current debate over debt limits, deficits and spending cuts are important, but we cannot lose sight of the fact that the budget that will be agreed upon is only binding until the next budget is passed. Though Senators and Representatives speak loftily about trillions cut over ten years, the fact remains that Congress cannot bind its future hands. The next fiscal year is a clean slate, and once the heat is off it is back to mortgaging our children’s future to pay off well-connected interests.

Almost every state in the union has a balanced budget requirement in their constitution. Some are weak, some are strong, some are easily gamed by legislators, but they are there to protect the fiscal health of the state.

Only the constitution of a state can bind a future state legislature to fiscal responsibility. Only the constitution of the United States can bind future Congresses to the will of the States, a fact made all the more critical since the Federal government can print money whereas the States cannot.

Neither party has had the stomach to balance the nation’s books save for one short period in the 1990s. The latest spell of runaway spending has terrified the nation and roiled the people who see their children born with obligations in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Yes, we must stop spending more than we receive, but I have no faith that we will see fiscal discipline over the long haul without a balanced budget amendment. It is a shame that our political class must have such a sword dangled over their heads, but 70 years of profligate spending and half-hearted attempts at restraint have proven utterly that it is desperately needed.

Every family has two debt limits.  One is how much a family is willing to get into debt.  The [...]]]> Every family in Missouri has to manage their resources.  Among their resources are debt.  Mortgage, credit cards, lines of credit – all of these are borrowing from their future income to make a purchase or investment today.

Every family has two debt limits.  One is how much a family is willing to get into debt.  The other is how much debt creditors are willing to lend.  The former is based on the family’s decisions about their lifestyle and projected income, the latter is calculated by creditors based on payment and income history.  The first limit is soft, the second is very hard.

A family without a good first limit is destined to hit the second.  A family approaching their self-regulated debt limit is going to make changes and cuts in their spending on their own accord and to their own preference.  A family who hits the second is going to have cuts imposed upon them, because they have simply have no money.

A nation who has no real self-imposed debt limit will eventually hit the second debt limit.  This has happened in American history.  Once, Congress refused to increase the amount of interest America was willing to pay on treasury bonds.  Bond buyers decided to put their money in more profitable investments and not enough bonds were sold.  At that time, the alternatives were increase the interest to be paid or do without the money.

Of course, Congress increased the interest and took the money.

Another option to a nation unable to raise money by selling debt is to print money.  This has been a disaster every time it has been done.  Photos of children playing with stacks of money in postwar Germany illustrate the worthlessness of money printed by a nation that debauches their currency.  Working families in this situation have their savings ruined and their economic future wrecked.  It can take generations to recover.

I fear this is what we are facing.  We are borrowing over 40% of the money the Federal government is spending.  Eventually, nobody will be dumb enough to lend us money.  To meet the enormous obligations the law says we must will be to print it.  If Uncle Sam is legally obligated to pay you 500 dollars, it could give you 500 dollars that could not cover the cost of a tank of gas and be square with the law.

America does not have a borrowing problem – so far people will still buy our bonds.  We do not have a revenue problem – the Feds siphon a disturbing percentage of our Gross National Product already.  We have a spending problem, and the only cure for this is to stop spending more than you take in.

There are many ways to curb spending, eliminating waste, fraud and abuse is one way.  Removing inherent inefficiencies of centrally planned programs are another.  Simply shutting down failed zones of the Federal system – entire cabinet departments even – are yet another.

Ultimately, though, there is no choice – spending will be cut.  There is no way the current trend can continue, we will stop spending.  We can do it now, intelligently and with forethought, or it can be done for us when the house of financial cards fall apart and the Feds have no option beyond printing million dollar notes so the grocer can make change from the billion dollar notes.  It’s up to us to decide.

Decades of slow growth have cost Missouri another seat in Congress.  There are many reasons that Missouri lags behind robust states like [...]]]>

Missouri Loses a Congressional Seat

Decades of slow growth have cost Missouri another seat in Congress.  There are many reasons that Missouri lags behind robust states like Texas, but suffice it to say that we need to do less of what we have been doing and more of what they are doing.  We will see how the congressional districts are redrawn soon enough, but it is a shame that a state as great as Missouri is not growing at a better rate than it is.

Open House January 2nd

We would love for you to join us on Sunday, January 2nd, from 3- 6pm at Two Hearts Banquet Center 4532 Lindbergh Blvd. (Lindbergh and Gravois) in South County for an afternoon that will fondly recall the fun and fellowship of this past year as well as provide a chance to look forward and discuss all the  opportunities that lay ahead.

Tax Rates Extended at the cost of Billions in Pork

Despite complaining bitterly that extending the current tax rates for two more years ought to incite people to anger (metaphorically “pitchforks and torches”) Senator Claire McCaskill votes “yes” on the “Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010.”   The final bill was heavily larded with new spending.  The bill also was bereft of spending cuts to offset the fresh outlays.  These facts may have been enough sugar for McCaskill and Representative Russ Carnahan to vote for tax rates they’ve spent a good deal of their careers vilifying.

President Obama’s administration is taking credit for averting an economic disaster which then begs a lengthy series of questions, the first being – what took so long?  Two years of uncertainty, billions in wasteful spending, pork projects and new entitlements have resulted in a weak economy with job anemic growth.  In desperation, and after an epic shellacking in November liberals lead by the president want to be given kudos for not putting another hole in the leaky boat of our economy.

If the president – and candidly members of congress on our side – really believed that current taxation levels are good for the economy, why are they only extended for two years?  Nothing has changed in the economy  other than delaying the debate over the increase.  A two percent cut in payroll taxes is a net good, but the deal includes billions more in spending.

America borrows up to 40 cents on every dollar it spends. As early as 2025 – 14 years from now – 100% of the revenue we bring in will be needed to pay for entitlements and debt.
Congress remains out of control.  While I acknowledge that the new Tea Party and other conservatives are not yet in Washington DC, the next leaders are.  Fiscally, the Democrats are showing that they are as incoherent as they are wrong.  Our team needs to do a better job of sticking to principles of good stewardship.

Keeping the DREAM Alive

America has an enormous problem with illegal immigration on our southern border, yet congress continues to try to sell Americans “Amnesty Before Enforcement.”  Congress has no track record of offering credible enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws and while many of us might be sympathetic to the plight of a young man or woman in America due to the criminality of their parents we cannot create yet another incentive to come to America in a repeat of the amnesty before enforcement under the Reagan administration.

Senator Claire McCaskill and Congressman Russ Carnahan both voted for yet another illegal alien amnesty despite (or because of) the many loopholes the DREAM act contains that are ripe for gaming.

America is a wonderful nation, and no one could fault someone who wishes to live here, but we have to have a rational, controlled immigration policy.  Americans are going to have to keep after Congress until we get it through their collective thick skulls.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Our military is not a test environment with which liberals can engage in experimentation.  We have a professional, all volunteer fighting force that has a singular mission of projecting American power and interests by force of arms.  It can be dangerous, demanding work and it calls upon many sacrifices and subordination of personal goals and desires to the needs of the mission.

Homosexual men and women were and are able to serve honorably in our military and have for as long as we have had a military.  Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was a reasonable compromise policy in which the military has been directed to not “hunt” homosexuals and those who were gay have been asked to keep their private lives private.  I believe the overwhelming majority of servicemen and women who are gay accept that the mission is more important than their personal life and are satisfied by the bargain. Over 80% of honorable discharges under DADT have been initiated by a service member breaking their part of the agreement by making their sexual orientation a matter of unit discipline.

Senator McCaskill and Congressman Carnahan may have secured for themselves the accolades of the left by ignoring the concerns of our combat troops but they have introduced a potentially disruptive variable into the volatile mix of a military in a protracted war.  I hope my grave concerns are never realized, but I fear the self-righteous indulgence of these thoughtelss leftists will have awful consequences.

Thanks for reading.  I cannot wait until the Sunday after next!

Like Robin Carnahan did as a Senate candidate, Senator Claire McCaskill is trying to recast herself as a fiscal conservative in the waning days of the most despised congress in [...]]]>

McCaskill and Senate Spending Bill

Like Robin Carnahan did as a Senate candidate, Senator Claire McCaskill is trying to recast herself as a fiscal conservative in the waning days of the most despised congress in 30 years.

83% of Americans disapprove of congress today, and that figure is overwhelming enough that even a tax and spend liberal like McCaskill is willing to buck her majority leader and feign disapproval for the 1900 page omnibus spending bill.  This bill is laden with pork, is crammed full of the same sort of spending repudiated in November’s election.

McCaskill’s Fox News denouncement of this expensive, expansive bill won’t fool many of us.  Liberals always act as if history began that morning.  This irresponsible omnibus spending bill mimics the last one.  A fiscally responsible Senator would have objected to that bill as well.  The reality is that McCaskill has a lengthy record of supporting massive new spending, supported TARP, the failed stimulus, cap and trade and Obamacare.  All of these measures serve to heap enormous burdens on our economy – just as the increase in taxes she supports will.

Liberal Senator McCaskill should vote against allowing Harry Reid to ram a spending bill through that simply continues last congress’ irresponsible spending into next year, but Missourians should not fall for the last minute conversion.

See Also: Senate Omnibus Bill: Nearly 2,000 Pages of Runaway Spending and Pork

Obamacare Unconstitutional

U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson in the Eastern District of Virginia has ruled that the individual mandate – and all aspects of Obamacare dependent on it – is unconstitutional.

The issue will undoubtedly end before the Supreme Court where Obama has succeeded in appointing two justices with a very poor understanding of how the constitution is meant to work.  Lower courts have been perfectly OK with Congress’ demand that a citizen minding their own business can be forced to buy something that they may not want, illustrating the need for both a president respectful of constitutional limits and a Senate that will refuse to allow such activists onto the bench.

The omnibus spending bill has a billion or more dollars set aside to advance this unconstitutional monstrosity.  Our Senators and Representatives need to oppose funding the implementation of Obamacare before we dig ourselves in any deeper.  Congress created this mess – it is up to congress to clean it up.

See Also: What if Obama’s healthcare law required every American to buy a gun? How’d you feel about that?

In the News

I was flattered to learn that Hotline ran a story about my future plans to run for office, indicating that I am eyeing the Senate.  Candidly, my plans for the moment are to stay warm, celebrate the advent of the Savior, keep an eye on Congress and look forward to seeing you January 2nd (see below).

Open House Jan 2nd

We would like to invite you to an Open House January 2nd, 2010.  We’ll be gathering between 3 and 6 p.m. at Two Hearts Banquet Center, 4532 Lindbergh Blvd, St. Louis MO 63127 (Lindbergh and Gravois).  Join us and enjoy some fabulous sweets and treats provided by McArthur’s Bakery.

Thanks for reading.  I look forward to seeing you soon
Ed