Recent Problems & Soluctions From Americans For Freedom

Terminal decline of a nation - U.S. economic problems

AFF Editor's Desk — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 22:12:56 +0000

"America is being transformed from an industrial colossus to a tired, down-at-the-heels, post-industrial society."

Americans have been so busy worrying rying about all their problems that very few noticed that the U.S. is going bankrupt. Ironically, it is those very problems that are driving the nation into bankruptcy. A partial list would include crime, drugs, poverty, a failing education system, a crumbling infrastructure, soaring health care costs, lagging productivity, a huge national debt, a large trade deficit, and an anemic rate of economic growth.

Can't America just muddle through, the way it always has? Not this time. the problems are so overwhelming that there are no easy solutions. Just take a look around.

All over the country, people are wearing signs that have not been seen since the Great Depression: "Will work for food." In Santa Fe, N.M., where several hundred homeless individuals have staked out places to sleep, there is a sign under a bridge proclaiming, "This is a home." In downtown Seattle, Wash., it is possible to see people with placards that say, "No Job, No Food, No Hope." They don't even bother to add, "No Home." Former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro remembers a little girl she saw near a shut-down Pennsylvania steel mill, holding up a sign: "My daddy needs a job."

America is being transformed from an industrial colossus to a tired, down-at-the-heels, post-industrial society. It is becoming a nation of the rich and super-rich at the top, a mass of poor people on the bottom, and a powerless middle class squeezed in between.

More and more, the U.S. is taking on the trappings of Third-World poverty. The streets are filled with homeless people and beggars. Crime is rampant, and the drug epidemic continues to rage out of control. The contrast between poverty and affluence never has been sharper, except that now there seems to be a lot more poor people than ever before.

Quoted: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1272/is_n2586_v122/ai_14995070/

Solution

A Solution? -- Why Has America’s Economic Recovery Stalled?

By: AFF Editor's Desk | Published: November 8, 2010 - 6:17pm

CAMBRIDGE – The United States’ import bill now exceeds $2.4 trillion a year, more than twice that of China and greater than that of the 27 European Union countries combined. Since the volume of US imports varies with the overall strength of the American economy, so does the volume of other countries’ exports.

So it was good news for everyone when the US economy began expanding in the summer of 2009, 19 months after falling into the recession that officially started in December 2007. Unfortunately, the recovery has turned out...

Elected Leaders Continue to Hide in Their Political Holes

AFF Editor's Desk — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 13:27:13 +0000

Each State must implement laws to end collective bargaining for public Unions in order to allow each city and county government the right to balance its budget without being held hostage to the Labor Union or a third party organization who is actually making government budget decisions who are not elected by the taxpayers. We need to fire or lay off the bad teachers and keep the Super Star Teachers which Union Contracts do not allow the taxpayers to do. Also, it should not take two to three years to fire a bad teacher which is caused by Union Contracts. Each state should pass new State laws to protect State Jobs and its citizens from Illegal workers, the Drug Cartel, MS-13, and slave labor. When the local police arrest a person for a suspected crime, it should be State Law not to release that person if he is here illegally. If the State needs to build tent city holding camps to round up all illegal criminals to make more room in the county and state jails, then that is what the taxpayers should demand occur.

No more protecting employers hiring illegal workers. The time has come to end the unfair free market competition so that the majority of employers who follow the law can compete. However, there as a few employers who have unfair competitive advantages as they are hiring illegal workers as they are not paying state and federal payroll taxes in order to make higher profits. This is directly draining tax revenues from our schools, law enforcement and social services for our legal residents because these businesses are not paying the taxes as required by law, and the illegal workers are creating very high demands of such services.

Each State should pass a Resolution condemning the Federal Government for sponsoring illegal residents in our colleges, housing projects, and Unions jobs. The Labor Unions have admitted that they are registering illegal residents as Union Members while at the same time there are numerous organizations registering non-citizens to vote in our elections.

We also need to STOP illegal residents from registering a new Florida Business at SunBiz.org and becoming a legal minority owned business status owned by illegal residents who are now receiving city, county, state and Federal contracts (paid by taxpayers) for contracting and other services. The city, county and state elected leaders refuse to implement and procedure to stop this from occurring.

Each State must also pas a resolution that condemns the Federal Government for refusing to enforce our immigration laws, security our borders. The Federal Government has also limited only 75,000 legal work visas per year in the United States when the State of Florida alone needs an estimated 35,000 legal work visas in our farming, hotel and construction industry. No legal work visas should be issued to any existing illegal resident in the United States. All illegal workers must apply outside the United States. No exceptions.

When an existing legal resident who is not a US Citizens commits any level of crime, then they automatically lose tier legal status in the United States. If they commit a felony, then they are blackballed and deported from the country. They will not even be allowed a tourist visa in the future. We need honest, hard working foreign workers who are seeking American Freedom, Capitalism and the American Dream. Any non-resident associated with a gang, organized crime, socialist or communist organization shall be deported as these beliefs undermine the US Constitution and our American Core Values.

Each State must stop government contractors from hiring illegal labor. The honest Florida business owners can no longer compete in a free market place due to illegal labor and high labor union costs.

The taxpayers must stand shoulder to shoulder together and demand that we will end leaving our homeless US Veterans on the street because our Public Housing is occupied with illegal residents today.

The State must pass laws that no more state college benefits, grants or in-state tuition be permitted for illegal students. This must stop in 2011.

Solution

If you do not Speak Out, Then Who Will?

By: AFF Editor's Desk | Published: March 10, 2011 - 9:29am

Share this note on your city, county, state and federal elected leaders Facebook walls. Email this story link to him/her and ask them to implement these laws to protect your Free American Rights and the security of our community. Hold them each accountable.

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A Good Budget Cut for Congress: Taxpayers Stop Funding Columbia University's Anti-American Movement

AFF Editor's Desk — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 17:00:57 +0000

Should Federal Tax payers fund Columbia University who has banned the US Military from its campus for 42 years and teaches students Anti-American policies? A private school has the right to promote hate if they want to in America. However, the US Taxpayers have the right to refuse to fund them. What is next? Taxpayers Funding a school that teaches kids how to make bombs or a NAZI College?

The link below is one of many stories about what Columbia University has been up to.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/02/20/wounded-iraq-vet-gets-heckled-columbia-university-speech/

Solution

A Good Example of What Needs to Be Cut from the Federal Budget

By: AFF Editor's Desk | Published: March 12, 2011 - 1:03pm

It is time to call your Congressional representative and demand that all Federal monies to Columbia University be cut. If they what to promote Socialism and hate against our Free American Republic at their school, then the taxpayers need to cut all tax dollars off to them. It is time that this ivory school stand on it's own two feet. This is a great budget cut item.

"Americans For Freedom": We Support the Right & Freedom to Work - What is America Really Becoming under the Progressives?

AFF Editor's Desk — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 17:53:21 +0000

We have received questions from our Members asking if AFF supports Right to Work. AFF supports Right to Work as an American Freedom. Workers should not be forced to join and fund a political organization, such as the AFL-CIO or SEIU in order to receive work to feed their families.

Labor Unions are openly funding the Socialist Movement from mandatory union dues. Union members must have the Freedom to dictate what portion of their union dues is to be paid to which political organization.

Socialists support the right to induce birth at six months of pregnancy, as the child that is born alive and then killed. AFF has studied third term abortions and these are the facts. However, these same Progressives in America demand that a Free American does not have the right to find work without joining a Labor Union and paying mandatory dues to fund Anti-American political organizations.

This is not a Pro-Choice or Pro-life point of view. It is an observation that radicals are expanding their control over our schools, colleges, courts and government where American Freedoms and values are being reduced with no regard to life or the Right to Work and Live Free.

Progressives support to force a person to become homeless and starve in the street before is he allowed to be hired as a non-union worker so he can feed his family. However, Progressives are the first to stand up to allow partial birth abortions where birth is induced, the baby is born alive and then killed. The Federal Government is funding almost $1 Billion towards abortions, including late term abortions. Planned Parenthood who is widely supported by the American Socialist Party, Democratic Party, Communist Party USA, Obama's Organizing America, the NAACP and other Left Wing organizations, receives over $700 Million per year in private donations. In additional to that, the Government gives them (and their affiliated clinics) a combined $363 Million per year in taxpayer monies to help fund their expanding abortion operations specifically in black neighborhoods.

The Progressives who control 15 States as "Union Labor" States, now have passed laws where a government employee or agent is allowed to remove your 13 year old child from public school to perform "Medical Procedures" on her and it is against State Law to notify the parents. Yet, if you are not a Union Member, you are not allowed to work. If you cannot work, then the State has the right to take your child from you where you no longer have parental rights.

Maybe you think that this sounds nuts and none of this is true?

Here is what the State of Washington states on their own web site.

WHAT ABOUT PARENTS?

http://www.fwhc.org/abortion/flyer.htm

In Washington state, parent’s permission is NOT required for a minor to obtain abortion, pregnancy tests, birth control methods, or tests for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. It is also not necessary to notify a parent before or after the [medical] procedure or test.

Parental consent laws are bad medicine and bad legislation. Responsible parents open the doors of communication themselves; they do not expect government to do it for them. Parental consent/notice laws are a form of parents abdicating responsibility to the government to curb the decisions teens may make. [Otherwise no parental consent is required by the government as the government will now take control over your child]

In Washington state, if you are pregnant and low income, you may qualify for "Medical Assistance" -- regardless of your age, and regardless of whether you want to give birth or get an abortion.

When you look at the facts about the Progressive Government system, Americans are being forced to be converted into something very un-American. Many people do not even realize the bigger picture of what they are supporting today.

Progressives openly support that you do not have the right or freedom to work as a non-union American, but you have the right for the Government to pay to take the life of your 6 month old baby. Progressives also believe that the "State" has the right to perform medical procedures on your child and hide this from you. If the Labor Unions where honest enough and truly supported "Pro-Choice" then why do they not support for a worker to have the freedom of choice to join a labor union or not in order to receive a job? Why do the Labor Unions not support the "Pro-Choice" of allowing its union members to decide which political organizations that their dues contribute to? What is wrong with this new Progressive Government Picture?

Progressives hate these facts being discussed in the Social Media, but this happens to be exactly what they are supporting in our country. "Americans For Freedom" has researched and studied these activities, as the Progressives and Unions are dramatically expanding their left wing views in public high schools and colleges today.

What is America becoming?

Solution

State Governments' Must Past Laws to Protect it's Citizens from a New Progressive Federal Government

By: AFF Editor's Desk | Published: March 12, 2011 - 1:55pm

The State and Federal Government should pass additional laws that protect a workers right and freedom to work. All Americans must have the freedom and equal opportunity to work and the free choice to join a labor union or not. The government must also ensure that all union members right to vote in our election process is fully protected by mandating that each union member has the right to dictate which political party and "community organization" that his portion of unions dues is to be paid to. If the union member does not make this choice on an annual basis, then his union dues may not be paid to any political party, campaigns, charity groups or community organizations. Please share this article with others in you...

AMERICANS FOR FREEDOM: Objects to Obama's $2.5 Billion Tax Credit For Unions. Here is a 100% Better Solution to Create Jobs

AFF Editor's Desk — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 17:47:43 +0000

Obama wants to give $2.5 BILLION for people to receive a $7.500 tax credit to purchase an electric car that is priced at about $50,000 so Unions can make more money. This is a complete waste of taxpayer monies. The Americans for Freedom solution detailed below will create far more Free Market jobs in the private sector while generating more local and state tax revenues for government.

Solution

An American Solution for a Free American Market Place that will Create American Jobs

By: AFF Editor's Desk | Published: March 12, 2011 - 1:49pm

Congress needs to provide a $7,000 combined annual tax credit for the next 3 years ($21,000 over 3 years), for ANYONE, any Landlord or Business to purchase energy efficient appliances or A/C units, windows, insulation, flooring , pool repair, a new roof, or re-painting.

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If Progressive Socialism and Labor Unions Controlling our Country is so great, then Why are ALL Left Wing States Bankrupt Today?

AFF Editor's Desk — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 17:28:20 +0000

If having a Progressive Socialist Government and Labor Unions control the city, county and state government budgets vs allowing the voters to control them, then why are "Socialist / Union Controlled States" like CA, NY, PA, NJ, OH, MI. MN, WI, IL, MD BANKRUPT today? These States have been under the control of the Unions and Progressive Socialists for 30+ years. So why do we want Congress to follow this path?

The Progressives failed at expanding into the Private Sector because workers realized that the Unions were killing American jobs, not supporting them. Every major industrial city was taken over by the Labor Unions from 1930 through 1985. The Unions moved in an took over the city, county and state governments. They supported increased union labor and litigation, followed by government taxes to pay for higher government union costs. These higher taxes and litigation costs have closed down entire industries in America and pushed jobs off shore.

Today, the Unions control only 7% of the private sector labor force. Since about 1965, the Labor Unions saw this as a risk. So since then, they have moved across the country taking over city, county and state governments in order to pass and control laws that are favorable for Unions and Anti-Business. Their solution is to continue to expand Class and Race Wars in order to expand hate in the local communities. The is followed by again higher taxes as the Labor Unions expand control over the local government, followed by control over the Federal government. If you object, then the Labor Unions personally and yes, even physically attack you. The Labor Unions and Socialist Party has a long term documented history of physical violence and damage to private property against anyone who openly opposes them. This is so well documented, that the unions do not even try to deny it today.

The Unions realized that by controlling the government, they would have the power to increase workers pay and "Union Dues'. The SEIU today generates over $500 million in annul dues from its members today. By gaining control of the Teachers and public schools, the Unions would have the power to teach children pro-union beliefs and Anti-Capitalism. We have seen this increase since about 1990 in CA, IL, MI, NY, PA, WI, OH NJ and other states. The Teachers Union is now pushing Progressive Socialism in schools in GA, TX, FL, CO, VA and other "Right to Work" states in order to produce future pro-Union, Progressive voters. These states are known as "Swing States' in the Presidential and Congressional elections.

Today, the Labor Unions have gained control over 43% of the entire nations State governments, and all of the Federal Government vs only 7% of private sector. Their goal is to gain full control over the nation, then pass new Labor Laws like France that will create a National Labor Union that will be masked as a "Civil Rights" issues. In France, employers must follow National Socialist Labor laws. For example, before a private business owner can fire or lay off an employee, he must apply for permission to the government court to explain why he wants to do that. This is exactly what the Democrats support for American to implement. The German Socialist Party has state laws making it illegal for someone to work more than 35 hours per week, and workers must have six weeks paid vacation. Interesting how the German government stated this week how foreign workers is draining their government budgets where Germany is planning to boot out it's own "Legal Workers".

Under the AFL-CIO union contracts with government, the Union may demand any pay and benefits that they wish. If the city or state refuses to agree, then the local government is pulled into binding arbitration. This gives the control of the city or state budgets to an unelected third party. Such control then bankrupts the government if the city or state does not expand a Socialist State control followed by higher taxes over private citizens and industry.

Another problem is Union Control over government is that retirement benefits for many union positions is 80% to 100% of the Union members pay. This is based on the last years of Union pay before retirement. So the year before a Government Union worker retires, the employee works a massive amount of over time. Since the Union runs the government, this overtime for fellow Union members is being allowed in the last year work before 20 years of retirement. The professors at colleges are doing this as well. So if a Union member earns $80,000 per year, they work overtime so much that they earn $120,000 per year in their last year of work. Under the Union contract, they will receive 80% of $120,000 vs 80% of $80,000 for the rest of their life. Under this model of 20, even 30 years of work, then everyone in the country should be Government Union Member. The reality is that the Government Unions have bankrupted the State governments.

So the reality here is that the American Unions have been transformed into a Socialist Labor Party Movement as they are going after full control over the government.

Solution

End all Public Sector Labor Unions and Give the Freedom of Government Back to the American People

By: AFF Editor's Desk | Published: March 12, 2011 - 1:29pm

Years ago, it was illegal for the Labor Unions to have collective bargaining with any level of government. It is time to end Labor Union control over our schools, colleges, courts and government. The first step will be to end such control by the unions so that the local government can once again be under the power and direction of the American Voters.

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Non-Citizens are Receiving Voter ID's for 2012 Elections: Ask your State Attorney General to Protect your American Civil Rights

AFF Editor's Desk — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 17:17:03 +0000

Everyone needs to contact their State Attorney General and request that the State protects your American Civil Right to vote. Labor Unions & Progressive organizations are registering non-citizens to receive voter ID cards. It is time that our elected leaders speak out and stop this before it gets any worse. American Citizens must have their Constitutional rights, which include, equal opportunity, freedom and the right to vote, protected. This can only be accomplished through the State Attorney General.

AFF has documented that elected leaders at the city and county levels will speak out to stop the illegal voter registration of non-citizens. They have no intention of even speaking about it. Your state and local community is at risk from increasing voter fraud. Socialist Movement and Labor Unions are behind this.

Many states are now issuing State photo ID's and drivers licenses to illegal residents. You need to understand that even "Legal" residents are now registering to vote when they are not a US Citizen. A photo ID presented when you vote is not protecting everyone's American civil right to vote as a US Citizen.

Many local, state and federal elections are now being decided with a mere 3% or less margin. This is even more reason why we must protect and preserve our US Citizen's right to vote under the US Constitution.

Solution

Call & Write Your State Attorney General to Protect your US Citizen and Constitutional Rights - Re-Issue New Voter ID Cards Today

By: AFF Editor's Desk | Published: March 12, 2011 - 1:24pm

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We the People must Control our Government: Is it Time to end Union Control Over our Schools, Colleges, Courts and Government?

AFF Editor's Desk — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 16:56:16 +0000

Taxpayers should understand that the AFL-CIO, SEIU and other Unions have such hard line contracts with many city and county governments that the Unions have a financial stranglehold on the taxpayers. Under current union contracts, the Unions are telling the city government what they will be paid and no cutbacks for years. If they cannot agree, then there is mandatory third party arbitration. This third party then decides what the union contract will or will not pay. This means that the voters’ rights have been reduced. Instead of the elected representatives making budget decisions, the taxpayers have a third party who is not elected who is actually making government budget decisions. Under the Constitution, this is not really even legal as this has created taxation without representation. The goal of our founding fathers was not to elect a person to go ask the King of England to consider a change in taxes. The purpose of the US Constitution was to have the “People” to elect their representatives who would actually be making those financial decisions. We have lost these rights to Labor Unions. Instead of King Phillip sending in his army to quite the “People” down, the Unions call for their Army to mobilize and surround the elected leaders citing civil unrest and to shut down the “Peoples government”. We also now see a sitting US President openly supporting for the Union Army to pour into one State like WI from other states to intimidate and threaten our elected leaders.

For many years now, union members have damaged private property, burned cars and buildings, and even killed people in order to take control over our government, private industry and the American People. While US Citizens have a right to protest and to free speech, does President Obama or the Federal Government have the right to directly harass, threaten and even shut down a State government? Under Article 10 of the US Constitution, it appears that the Federal Government does not have this right. Therefore, it appears that President Obama is once again violating the US Constitution. We witnessed this when Obama’s operations attacked Arizona, and when he implemented his Federal Healthcare mandates as well.

Is it really free speech when Union members show up at a Republican’s homes where the family feels threatened? Is it right for Teachers to close down 40% of WI schools and the taxpayers still have to pay them to protest? Is it right for teachers to transport students, and teach them to say “DEATH” to the elected representatives’? Is it right for the Teachers to set the example that if you disagree with someone that you yell at them and call them a NAZI? Is it right for the Unions to teach our kids that defrauding the taxpayers by having Progressive doctors break the law by standing in the street handing out sick notes to Union member to cheat the legal system? This is what the Unions have clearly demonstrated in our county. Have you have enough of the Progressive Labor Unions controlling our schools, colleges, courts and government yet?

'We the People" have lost control over our government to the Labor Unions. It used to be illegal for labor unions to form at any level of government. These reasons why are very clear. So the Unions funded political campaigns and slowly took over each city, then county, then the State, and now the Federal Government. For example, in New York is about impossible for a teacher to be fired. Once they work for at least for three years as a Union member, they are guaranteed a job with full benefits for life, followed by an 80% of their last years pay as pension benefits. Many unions do not pay anything into their pension. Others pay a mere 1% of their pay for their pension plan and still scream as if a family member had just died. Many of us would love to pay into a government union pension with a mere 1% of our pay and receive 80% of our annual pay after 20-30 years of work. Meaning that by age 50 or 60 we would be set for life as we demand for the local employers to keep higher and higher taxes. New York has over 1,000 teachers who are documented as unqualified to teach in the classroom. So under Union rules, these teachers report to a TV or game room every day. Some teachers have been doing this for over four years. This cost the City of New York over $40 Million per year.

Detroit is where the Labor Unions first formed in America. The Progressive Socialists own that city. Today, Detroit is bankrupt and the city has turned into a war zone. The Unions have pushed all employers out of the state due to increased litigation, union and Progressive Government control over the private sector and soaring taxes against employers. The high school drop out rate is now 80%. The Progressives have ruined the city to the point where 50% of all public schools are expected to be closed in the coming years due to a lack of money. This is the founding flagship city of Organized Labor Unions. This is what a Progressive Government represents. Now the Progressives want this control over the entire county and the Federal government?

The quality of work by many union members has greatly declined at they know it is just about impossible to be fired. Also, Union workers earn anywhere from 50% to 100% higher pay and benefits than that the private sector pays. This sounds good when you first hear about the job security and higher payer. However, local governments have been held hostage by the unions for a very long time. Unions have forced the local governments to continue to increase taxes against the private sector where the non-union working family is now tapped out. Unions have rallied to keep increasing taxes on employers to the point where employers are bailing out of entire Union controlled states, and even leaving the country. This is clear when you look at cities like Pittsburg, Detroit, Flint, Chicago, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Newark, and many other local governments who have fallen to the control of the Labor Unions and Progressives. In result, the Labor Unions have reduced jobs for the poor and working class, not helped create them. Because of this Union lead economic disaster, union membership has plunged to a mere 7% nationwide in the private sector. However, the Union still controls the vast majority of the country’s industries in CA, NY, PA, MD, NJ, MI, WI, OH, IL, and WA.

So in order for unions to survive, they have focused on where the money and power is. Today, 43% of all government workers are members of a labor union. The Labor Unions, not all, not the vast majority of them, are now aligned with the Democratic Party who is also openly partnered with the American Socialist Party, Communist Party USA, Common Cause, Obama's "Organizing for America", MoveOn.org, and over 100 Progressive and even Marxist community organizations. Americans for Freedom has documented this many times now. The SEIU has openly stated on video tape that the Unions are recruiting "Undocumented Workers", giving them union membership and even placing them in jobs today. The Progressives have taken the position that is a person lives in America even those they are an illegal resident, then they have the right to join a Union, get a job and even vote. Today, Progressives Community organizations are registering millions of non-Citizens to vote in the local and federal elections and nobody is stopping them. The entire voting process by US Citizens has been flawed and it is getting much worse. The Republicans refuse to discuss this because they do not want to upset the Latino vote or be called a racist for trying to enforce our laws and the US Constitution.

The goal of the Progressive Labor Unions is to control all levels of government and our elected representatives. They wish to implement National Labor Union laws as what France and Germany have today. For example, if a private employer in France wishes to fire or lay off a person he must first apply to the court and ask permission to do so. France has a current unemployment rate of about 38% for workers between the ages of 18 to 30. In Germany, private employers are mandated by law to pay for six weeks vacation and employees are not allowed to work more than 35 hours per week. Such laws implemented by the Federal Government in our Free American Republic are illegal under the US Constitution. However, a city or state is allowed to pass such Socialist Government policies. This has been the problem. The Progressives have gained complete control over the largest States in America. They are now attempting to circumvent the US Constitution and convert the country from a Free American Republic into a Socialist State. The Unions are now at the stage of expanding their Progressive Socialist Movement over the country as the voters are distracted with other issues. The nation is at a very serious cross road.

Solution

"Americans For Freedom" Plan of Action

By: AFF Editor's Desk | Published: March 12, 2011 - 12:57pm

Each State needs to shift from a "Union State" to a "Right to Work" State. Local and State governments must have the legal power to cut the budgets vs. being forced to either increase taxes or create more government debt to pay for Union benefits and workers. Government workers pay must be adjusted to the private sector in order to reduce taxes for the working families in the community. Union pension plans need to be phased out and converted to a 401(k) plan where the employee funds their own retirement with employer matching. For example, every $1 a government employee invests in his 401(k), then the taxpayers will match that with 50 cents to a $1. This is a great option. If the local government has a surplus o...

The Perennial Border Control Problem

AFF Editor's Desk — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 18:11:19 +0000

Fifty-three years ago, when newly elected Dwight Eisenhower moved into the White House, America's southern frontier was as porous as a spaghetti sieve. As many as 3 million illegal migrants had walked and waded northward over a period of several years for jobs in California, Arizona, Texas, and points beyond. President Eisenhower cut off this illegal traffic. He did it quickly and decisively with only 1,075 United States Border Patrol agents – less than one-tenth of today's force. The operation is still highly praised among veterans of the Border Patrol.

Although there is little to no record of this operation in Ike's official papers, one piece of historic evidence indicates how he felt. In 1951, Ike wrote a letter to Sen. William Fulbright (D) of Arkansas. The senator had just proposed that a special commission be created by Congress to examine unethical conduct by government officials who accepted gifts and favors in exchange for special treatment of private individuals. General Eisenhower, who was gearing up for his run for the presidency, said "Amen" to Senator Fulbright's proposal.

He then quoted a report in The New York Times, highlighting one paragraph that said: "The rise in illegal border-crossing by Mexican 'wetbacks' to a current rate of more than 1,000,000 cases a year has been accompanied by a curious relaxation in ethical standards extending all the way from the farmer-exploiters of this contraband labor to the highest levels of the Federal Government." Years

later, the late Herbert Brownell Jr., Eisenhower's first attorney general, said in an interview with this writer that the president had a sense of urgency about illegal immigration when he took office. America "was faced with a breakdown in law enforcement on a very large scale," Mr. Brownell said. "When I say large scale, I mean hundreds of thousands were coming in from Mexico [every year] without restraint." Although an on-and-off guest-worker program for Mexicans was operating at the time, farmers and ranchers in the Southwest had become dependent on an additional low-cost, docile, illegal labor force of up to 3 million, mostly Mexican, laborers. According to the Handbook of Texas Online, published by the University of Texas at Austin and the Texas State Historical Association, this illegal workforce had a severe impact on the wages of ordinary working Americans. The Handbook Online reports that a study by the President's Commission on Migratory Labor in Texas in 1950 found that cotton growers in the Rio Grande Valley, where most illegal aliens in Texas worked, paid wages that

were "approximately half" the farm wages paid elsewhere in the state.

Profits from illegal labor led to the kind of corruption that apparently worried Eisenhowe

r. Joseph White, a retired 21-year veteran of the Border Patrol, says that in the early 1950s, some senior US officials overseeing immigration enforcement "had friends among the ranchers," and agents "did not dare" arrest their illegal workers. Walt Edwards, who joined the Border Patrol in 1951, tells a similar story. He says: "When we caught illegal aliens on farms and ranches, the farmer or rancher would often call and complain [to officials in El Paso].

And depending on how politically connected they were, there would be political intervention. That is how we got into this mess we are in now." Bill Chambers, who worked for a combined 33 years for the Border Patrol and the then-called US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), says politically powerful people are still fueling the flow of illegals. During the 1950s, however, this "Good Old Boy" system changed under Eisenhower – if only for about 10 years. In 1954, Ike appointed retired Gen. Joseph "Jumpin' Joe" Swing, a former West Point classmate and veteran of the 101st Airborne, as the new INS commissioner. Influential politicians, including Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson (D) of Texas and Sen. Pat McCarran (D) of Nevada, favored open borders, and were dead set against strong border enforcement, Brownell said. But General Swing's close connections to the president shielded him – and the Border Patrol – from meddling by powerful political and corporate interests. Quoted by Rolland from: Article by: W. James Antle, III (http://www.csmonitor.com)

Solution

AFF's Solution To the Border Control Problem

By: AFF Editor's Desk | Published: February 25, 2011 - 4:25pm

Help us with your comments and contributions to create a solution for this on-going problem.