At the end of the Cold War in 1989, the common understanding was that, with the emergence of the United States as the world’s single superpower, an era of order and peace would ensue. The perpetual struggle between nations vying for hegemonic dominance was over.
America had won, and the world was better for it. Compared to Nazis, Communists, Islamists, and others seeking control, America, as the world’s leading democracy, was clearly the least self-seeking and most committed to the common welfare.
It hasn’t worked out that way. Unfortunately, over the ensuing decades, Americans have elected a series of manifestly unqualified leaders. Two undistinguished leaders of small southern states, two scions of a well-respected family with limited leadership instincts, and a leftist “community organizer” who had been an inconsequential member of a state legislature, but who orated well and wore great suits.
We most recently elected a lifelong politician with a reputation as an incompetent plagiarizer and a weakness for outrageous lying and corruption. At this writing, he seems set for a rematch in the next election against another incumbent who must be one of the most incurious, entitled, and self-absorbed people to ever achieve high office.
Elections have consequences. America’s record of electing mediocre-at-best leaders has created a world very different from 1989. America’s standing in the world has sharply declined. Competition and chaos once again dominate international affairs.
America’s leaders no longer understand the critical importance of peace through strength. Instead, they seem to believe that successful statecraft is based on accommodation and concession. In a nuclear world, acting forcefully with enemies is just too risky. Better to make nice with autocrats and hope not to rile them up.
So, we get the contrivances of “leading from behind” and “red lines” which disappear when needed to obscure the lack of resolve. Autocrats just read the concessions as weakness. Allies learn to not depend on us.
For example, by 2010, the U.S. was on the verge of a lasting victory in the Iraq war, which had been brokered by the Bush administration. But Obama, in his eagerness to respond to America’s war-weariness, botched the job.
He needlessly interfered in an Iraqi election, destroying the fragile coalition that had contained the terrorists. Then he mishandled the withdrawal of U.S. troops, ignoring the agreements that had been forged with the Iraqis. The result was the collapse of American goals in Iraq and the resurgence of Islamist terrorism. A new organization called ISIS was inflicted on the world
In August 2021, President Biden ordered the immediate evacuation of troops and personnel from Kabul to end the Afghanistan War, based, he said, on the advice of senior U.S. military officers and information that a collapse of the Afghan government was highly unlikely. But no such advice was actually given.
Instead, Biden’s haste to end the war without proper preparation squandered 20 years of American blood and sacrifice. Thirteen U.S. service members were killed in a terrorist attack, hundreds of Americans were abandoned, and our trusted interpreters and local advisers were left in the lurch.
Military weaponry worth billions was simply abandoned as the Taliban once again assumed de facto control of the country. Sharia law and Islamist oppression of women resumed. Biden to this day insists he did nothing wrong.
America also regularly folds like an accordion in hostage negotiations. The deserter Bowe Bergdahl and basketball star Brittney Griner were both exchanged for pennies on the dollar in strategic value.
Recently, our negotiating geniuses agreed to swap five higher-value Iranian military personnel for five American civilians—and we even sweetened the pot by releasing $6 billion to the Iranians, which could only be used for humanitarian efforts.
Whoops! The Iranians immediately announced they would use the funds for whatever they pleased, including enriching uranium ore to near weapons-grade levels. State Department spokesman John Kirby explained that the deal was “the best we could achieve.” The impotent superpower was humbled once again.
In a democracy, voters get what they deserve. Our leaders’ obvious mistakes are ours for electing them.
America needs to elect leaders who are principled, competent, and decisive. Our next chance is coming up in 2024. It could be our last.
Dr. Thomas Patterson, former Chairman of the Goldwater Institute, is a retired emergency physician. He served as an Arizona State senator for 10 years in the 1990s, and as Majority Leader from 93-96. He is the author of Arizona’s original charter schools bill.
As acting governor, one of Treasurer Kimberly Yee’s first official declarations was to assure the state that she wouldn’t abuse her authority by installing agency leadership without legislative approval, implying she wouldn’t follow Gov. Katie Hobbs’ example.
“While I am pleased to step into this role, I will refrain from naming directors to the 13 agencies that currently have vacancies and will not call the Arizona Legislature into session to confirm them,” said Yee.
In the closing remarks of her public statement on Wednesday, Yee expressed the hope that Hobbs would name “qualified directors” to lead the agencies upon her return the next day.
“The people of Arizona deserve leaders who follow the rule of law,” said Yee.
I have been notified that I will be serving as Acting Governor beginning later this evening until mid-morning tomorrow. Read my full statement below. pic.twitter.com/sSuiSCebk4
The State Senate has yet to confirm 13 nominations put forth by Hobbs, who have been serving as interim directors. The senate’s stall prompted Hobbs to remove the nominees from their interim role and re-establish them as executive deputy directors, effectively granting them the authority of directors.
In a statement on Monday, Hobbs said that the executive deputy director move was lawful. The governor blamed the 13 appointees’ failure to be accepted on “extremists in the Senate” bent on adhering to a “radical political agenda.”
“I’m putting an end to [Senate President Warren Petersen’s] political circus that holds Arizona agencies hostage and wastes taxpayer dollars,” said Hobbs.
In an attached letter to Petersen, Hobbs cited instances of canceled nomination hearings and failures to schedule a full senate vote for committee-approved nominees as examples of the senate not fulfilling its vetting process per law or tradition.
Hobbs specifically targeted Sen. Jake Hoffman (R-AZ-15), chair of the Director Nominations Committee, for “disrespectful behavior” such as attempting to leverage nominee confirmations for her acceptance of certain policies.
“It is clear that this committee has taken upon itself to impose some other, impossible standard — or perhaps no standard at all beyond the whims of Senator Hoffman — for evaluating nominees,” wrote Hobbs.
I withdrew my cabinet nominees today to pursue other lawful means of ensuring the state government can work for Arizonans.
The move has prompted outcry from lawmakers. Senate President Warren Petersen (R-AZ-14) said that the executive deputy directorships were a blatant and open attempt at circumventing law.
“Dark day for Arizona,” posted Petersen on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Petersen further asserted that the directors were “fake” and illegitimate. The senate president also clarified that the senate has approved 70 percent of Hobbs’ nominees.
Consequently, Yee barred those directors from sitting at the State Board of Investment meeting on Tuesday. The treasurer echoed Republican lawmakers’ stance that Hobbs’ action was illegal.
In a separate statement, Yee said that Hobbs created “chaos and confusion” directly counter to proper government proceedings.
“The absence of lawfully appointed directors of these two agencies creates legal uncertainty and jeopardizes the proceedings of the State Board of Investment,” said Yee.
Arizona Treasurer Kimberly Yee issued the following statement on today's State Board of Investment meeting. pic.twitter.com/SU0ByqcR4m
— Office of the Arizona State Treasurer (@AZTreasury) September 26, 2023
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
On September 19, I testified before a House subcommittee on the impacts of Bidenomics – yet it was clear that half the committee members weren’t even listening. That’s disturbing because our lawmakers have played a huge role in making the typical American family about $7,000 poorer in just two and a half years.
Instead of acknowledging the data I presented, the Democrats on the subcommittee only regurgitated their talking points and resorted to espousing falsehoods about the state of the economy. Even if half our leaders won’t listen to the facts, hopefully the American people will, so here’s the truth about Bidenomics.
Under President Joe Biden, the government has spent, borrowed, and created trillions of dollars, and that caused the highest inflation in four decades. This inflation is a real tax on the American people because it transfers wealth from the people to the government. And the size of that transfer has been staggering.
The average American worker today loses more of his hourly earnings through the hidden tax of inflation than in federal income taxes. That means inflation under Mr. Biden has effectively doubled the average American’s federal income tax liability. Nominal pay keeps going up, but real (inflation-adjusted) pay has gone down.
The typical American family with two parents working and with average weekly earnings has seen their weekly pay increase $230 under Biden, but those larger paychecks buy about $100 less. The result is an annual decrease in purchasing power of about $5,100.
Similarly, net household wealth is at a record high today, but only before adjusting for inflation. In real terms, net household wealth is roughly flat since the end of 2020. That means nearly all the trillions of dollars in additional net household wealth have been confiscated by the government under this president through the hidden tax of inflation.
That’s how the government has been financing its massive deficits for the last three years.
To combat the inflation that it helped cause, the Federal Reserve has increased interest rates which have compounded the pain for Americans. Borrowing costs have risen dramatically and are now about $1,800 higher annually for the typical American family. Coupled with their loss in purchasing power, this leaves a family about $7,000 poorer than when Mr. Biden took office.
Yet many people are even worse off than that. If you’re trying to buy a home today, the monthly mortgage payment on a median price home has more than doubled under Mr. Biden. Homeownership affordability is at one of its lowest levels on record, and less than half of American households can qualify for a mortgage. And many who qualify still can’t afford the payments.
The impact of Bidenomics on federal finances has been just as bad, with interest on the federal debt rising at the fastest pace on record. In less than a decade, interest payments will crowd out more than half of existing government spending.
While the Democrats on the subcommittee refused to listen to any facts I presented, nothing I said was about politics, but policy. President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, signed welfare reform and multiple balanced budgets. And the 12 years of low inflation that preceded Mr. Biden were overseen by both a Republican and a Democrat.
The laws of supply and demand are purely apolitical, with both Democrats and Republicans being subjected to them. The sooner today’s Democrats—and some Republicans—realize this, the sooner they can acknowledge the factual outcomes of Bidenomics and hopefully change course.
But if the conduct of the Democrats on the subcommittee before which I testified is any indication, we shouldn’t hold our breath.
E.J. Antoni is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation, a public finance economist at The Heritage Foundation, and a senior fellow at Committee to Unleash Prosperity.
Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ-04) and Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego will host a re-election campaign fundraiser for President Joe Biden later this month.
The reception will take place Sept. 28 through the Biden Victory Fund. Tickets range from a $3,300 minimum to $100,000. The location of the event is confidential, for attendees only.
The fundraiser will occur the day after the first Republican Party presidential debate in Simi Valley, California.
The contact for the event, Guicela Sandoval-Lopez, is a political consultant with the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Susie T. Buell Foundation.
Gallego told reporters that she’s confident Arizona will remain a blue state in 2024.
The pair are also on the campaign trail defending their incumbency. Though Stanton entertained a challenge to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), he announced at the start of the year that he intended on remaining in the House.
The mayor and her council — along with her former husband and Stanton’s fellow congressman, Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03) — have been petitioning for the Biden administration to declare the desert heat as an emergency. Such a declaration would ensure a consistent and ample source of federal funding for various municipal projects.
The Biden administration appears to be heeding that request. In July, Biden issued several heat relief directives in a joint call with Gallego and San Antonio, Texas Mayor Ron Nirenberg.
Biden’s directives resulted in a Heat Hazard Alert outlining federal heat-related protections, as well as increased enforcement mechanisms by the Labor Department.
Despite those actions and the administration’s estimation of $50 billion in funding to counter heat due to climate change, Gallego told Biden that Phoenix needed more.
“We would love it if Congress would give you the ability to declare heat a disaster,” said Gallego. “We think that could really save additional aid, and that would even more multiply the impact of FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance and Building Resistant — Resilience Infrastructure — the BRIC programs, which are a good start to building long-term solutions, such as energy redundancy for cooling centers.”
The Phoenix mayor has remained a steadfast supporter of the president. She helped his initial campaign as well.
Happening tomorrow: Join @DNC Chair @TomPerez and me in north Phoenix as the Biden Bus rolls into town!
Come grab some literature and help us deliver it to neighborhoods, then grab signs to show your @JoeBiden & @KamalaHarris pride.
In 2021, Gallego was one of eight mayors invited to the White House to weigh in on proposed infrastructure funding, some of which reportedly went to combating climate change.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The immigration crisis is crushing New York City. According to ABC7 news, last week alone 2,900 new “asylum seekers” entered one of the city’s 200 new emergency shelters.
Mayor Eric Adams says the city spends $383 per day per family on food, shelter, and other expenses, which are deemed the migrants’ right to receive for no charge or obligation because well…just because.
The formerly elegant Roosevelt Hotel has been designated the nerve center for services to accommodate the 120,000 illegal immigrants now in the city. Mayor Adams estimates the city will incur a $12 billion deficit as a result of the influx, meaning that “every service in the city is going to be impacted.” Fifteen percent across-the-board budget cuts are seriously looming.
Yet the expenditures are not adequate to address the surge. Immigrants are occupying the sidewalks in front of the Roosevelt, locals are fuming over the takeover of schools, parks, and other public facilities while reports of subway crime are beginning to pop up. Maybe the sanctuary status the Mayor pressed for, when the costs were borne elsewhere, isn’t such a great idea after all.
Mayor Adams correctly points out that since border law is a federal matter, the feds should help alleviate the distress they are causing. What we’re getting instead is outrageous gaslighting. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insists that President Biden has actually done a great job of protecting the border “and you have seen him do that.”
We have? This is the president who unilaterally eliminated policies like Remain in Mexico and Title 42, which effectively reduced the number of illegal border crossings. The result has been a surge of approximately 2.7 million people on Biden’s watch, 260,00 this August alone. That doesn’t include the “gotaways”, who are uncountable, but estimated to number at least 1.5 million during the Biden administration.
It’s no wonder Americas are starting to feel the strains in social services, healthcare, schools, and prisons. Their advocates claim illegal immigrants are an economic boon, but if that were, why do leftist enclaves complain bitterly about receiving them instead of requesting more?
Truth check: immigrants cost taxpayers $150 billion annually and growing. Even worse is the humanitarian crisis caused by cartels victimizing women and children vulnerable to “human trafficking.”
Illegal immigrants are often erroneously referred to in the popular press as “asylum seekers.” That’s a lie. Imaginary asylum seeking is the (very successful) strategy used to circumvent lawful border enforcement. Immigrants not otherwise eligible for entry are coached to say “I feel unsafe” to border agents. That automatically entitles them to an asylum hearing, which, because of the crowding at the border, is scheduled years in the future.
It’s a farce. They pretend to be seeking asylum, and we pretend to believe them. Fewer than 10 percent are eligible for legitimate asylum. Most never show up for their hearing.
Democrats also like to pretend there is nothing they can do about the ongoing border invasion because Republicans once voted against a bill that included additional border funding. But if Republicans were willing to discuss comprehensive immigration reform, maybe we could talk…
That gives away their game. “Comprehensive” reform is a euphemism for citizenship. The Biden administration willingly pays a high price politically for their devastating border policies. The hardships caused by unlimited immigration are causing widespread resentment. An election looms.
Yet they soldier on, refusing to consider even the most reasonable measures to reduce the ongoing surge. There’s only one possible explanation: they are playing the long game, taking hits now to achieve future political domination.
They see the 20 million or so foreign nationals now living here as future Democrats, who they will relentlessly portray as victims if not eventually granted citizenship. The gambit will work again. The American political landscape will be changed forever.
There is a way out. It’s not more money. It’s not more laws. It’s not even a wall. We must simply follow the example of decent, self-respecting nations throughout history and employ the lawful force of government to maintain our sovereign borders.
Follow the Law. It’s doable, it’s moral, and it’s necessary to protect legal immigrants, American citizens, and America’s future.
Dr. Thomas Patterson, former Chairman of the Goldwater Institute, is a retired emergency physician. He served as an Arizona State senator for 10 years in the 1990s, and as Majority Leader from 93-96. He is the author of Arizona’s original charter schools bill.
