Kamala Harris in her nomination acceptance at the Democratic National Convention assured the roaring crowd that she would “never stop fighting” for the American people and that she would “blaze a new way forward.” The speech disclosed no details, but she appeared to have in mind merely adding to the benefits that the welfare state bestows on grateful voters.
Subsidies for home mortgages, forgiveness of student loans, and free universal preschool have been dangled as possibilities. However, Harris and the other purveyors of free stuff have a big problem. They are running out of other peoples’ money to give away.
It’s not just America but the world’s advanced economies who are seeing the bill come due for decades of social spending exceeding revenue. American leftists like to chide fiscal conservatives for fretting about high tax rates, but economists now note that some high-tax European states are approaching the peak of the Laffer curve, the point at which raising tax rates fails to raise additional revenues. That means hitting the wall.
Western politicians over the last century developed a different style of campaigning for office. Rather than emphasizing the common good and overall strength of the nation, they competed on the basis of what government services they could provide to individuals and groups.
The responses to the Great Depression and the COVID crisis were especially harmful. The New Deal failed to end the depression. We have WWII to thank for that. But the traumatic experience convinced many Americans to think of government as their benevolent caretaker.
The economic deprivations caused by the COVID crisis were due to mostly self-inflicted wounds like the economic and educational shutdowns. Worse, long after the crisis had passed, the checks kept coming to Americans who were not impoverished. The “emergency” expenditures morphed into entitlements.
America has developed a culture of spending which caused the national debt in 2023 to exceed 120% of GDP while 100% has long been considered the outer limit of acceptable indebtedness. We also have hundreds of trillions more in future obligations to beneficiaries with no funding source available.
Time and demographics are not on our side. In just the next 12 years, aging baby boomers will reduce the ratio of workers (25 to 64) to retirees (65 and older) from 3:1 to 2:1. The fastest growing demographic group is those 85 and older, who require extra funding. Moreover, increased security risks like war and terrorism will create additional budgetary stresses.
There are fewer alternatives to reduced spending than ever available. Tax increases are politically unpopular and often don’t produce the hoped for outcomes because they reduce productivity. European countries have about 50% higher tax revenues than America, yet their real GDP per capita is lower, even factoring in the government services and subsidies they receive.
The era of low interest rates and the accompanying “sugar high” is over. The higher cost of debt financing will inevitably impair the ability of succeeding generations, already tapped out, to shoulder the burden of our selfish spending.
By now, we’ve breezed past all the easy fixes. We are facing severe warning signals, and all the red lights are blinking. Yet in spite of the urgent need to change our ways, both political parties studiously look the other way. Getting elected is still the imperative that trumps all others.
The general accounting office (GAO) recently made recommendations for minor adjustments to federal government procedures that would save $208 billion over the next decade. The major one was equalizing payment rates for offices determining Medicare benefits. The proposals are non-controversial and politicians supporting them could take cover by pointing out that they are endorsed by a non-partisan agency. The response has been…crickets.
Scores of scholarly papers have been written on how to reduce government waste, how to expedite permitting, and how to recover COVID over-payments, all to no avail. The politicians just aren’t that interested and, sadly, neither is the public.
We’re hearing a lot about democracy lately. Both parties claim the other one is an existential threat. Advice to would-be political leaders who are courageous enough to go beyond pontificating and do something that might actually preserve our democracy is simply this: cut the spending.
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.
You’ve seen “Black Women for Kamala” and even “White Dudes for Kamala,” but don’t expect to see “Parents for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.”
Vice President Kamala Harris is squarely against parental control of what young children are taught about sex, gender and homosexuality in school. On Tuesday, she chose a running mate — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — a former schoolteacher who shares her extreme, anti-parent views.
Harris and Walz are out of line with what most Americans think. Not just Republicans; a majority of Hispanic and Black Democrats don’t want gender ideology in elementary school classrooms, according to Pew Research and You/Gov polls.
On July 25, Harris promised the American Federation of Teachers convention that she opposes the wave of state laws that bar preschool and elementary school teachers from indoctrinating children about sexual orientation and gender choices. Harris also opposes book bans, suggesting she’s OK with giving young children books that encourage them to question their own gender identity.
“We want to ban assault weapons. They want to ban books,” she railed. At issue are books for the youngest readers, like “I Am Jazz,” that tell little girls they can be boys, and little boys that they can be girls. Jazz “had a girl’s brain in a boy’s body. … Jazz was transgender.”
Parental rights and the innocence of young children are at stake in this election, warns Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, which launched an $18 million ad campaign across seven swing states. Schilling calls Harris an “extremist.”
All people, regardless of their sexual orientation, deserve respect. But parents need the final say on what their children are taught.
Harris has a history of bashing lawmakers who side with parents. At a June 23, 2023, pride rally, she called them “extremists.”
Who’s extreme here? You decide.
An AFT report deplores a Henrico County, Virginia, parent for questioning the appropriateness of “I’m a Gay Wizard,” a book in the school library, which depicts two boy characters having oral sex.
Former President Donald Trump vows to cut federal funding for any school or program that tries to push gender ideology and other “inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.”
On June 18, Harris posted a picture of herself hugging a tall man in drag, dressed in a metallic bikini and stilettos, on Facebook, adding the message, “Our LGBTQI+ children should not fear who they are.”
Of course they shouldn’t. All children deserve respect.
But this battle isn’t about inclusion. Inclusion is a good thing. This is about indoctrination. According to the AFT, “Books that normalize sexual identity confusion can help young people realize that they are not alone in their struggle for identity clarity and confirmation.” What the AFT goes on to say is that “the lack of candid conversations in families” about “nonheterosexual identity development” must be offset by teachers bringing it up.
Sorry, most parents don’t want the AFT — or local school authorities — replacing family. Harris apparently does. So does her new running mate.
Minnesota parents who opposed “Call Me Max,” a book about a transgender boy, being read aloud in kindergarten asked why they should let a teacher plant seeds of doubt in their kindergarteners about their sexual identity. Several states have banned the book from classrooms, but amazingly, California’s state education department recommends it for kindergarteners, first graders and second graders.
On May 22, Walz signed a law barring parental groups from removing books or materials from Minnesota school libraries based on content, calling the parental efforts “regressive.” The bill mimics legislation already passed in California and other blue states that leaves educators, not families, in charge.
Walz also championed legislation to provide tampons in all boys’ bathrooms, in case a transgender needs one. That’s pushing an agenda.
Meanwhile, Harris mocks parents, exclaiming, “Book bans in this year of our Lord 2024.”
The choice in November is between California values — extremely liberal Harris values — or the values your family chooses.
Meanwhile, the real emergency in education is being ignored. Fewer than one-third of fourth graders are proficient in reading, and barely one-third are proficient in math.
Blame the AFT. Its website is all about immigration rights, transgender rights, banning firearms, and other political issues. Not a word about pedagogy — how to teach reading and math effectively.
After Walz’s selection Tuesday, both the AFT and National Education Association rushed to applaud the pick.
Parents: If you care about your children’s innocence and their future, don’t elect AFT toady Harris and her anti-parent running mate in November.
Betsy McCaughey is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation and a former lieutenant governor of New York and chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey. To find out more about Betsy McCaughey and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
Vice President Kamala Harris and her vice-presidential pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, will be coming to campaign in Arizona on Friday. Details of their visit are forthcoming.
Harris and Walz will be visiting a little over a week after Trump’s vice presidential pick, Ohio Senator JD Vance, addressed Arizonans in Glendale.
Harris and Walz will come to Phoenix, but details of the exact location and time have not yet been released.
The visit comes shortly after Harris passed over Senator Mark Kelly as her running mate pick. Kelly put his support behind Walz on Tuesday, and disclosed to his supporters that he didn’t believe he would be the pick.
“I never expected to find myself in this position,” said Kelly.
Vice President @KamalaHarris and Governor @Tim_Walz are going to move us forward. They’re already building a campaign to unite our country — and @GabbyGiffords and I are ready to do everything we can to help them win.
Former Governor Doug Ducey toldThe New York Post in an interview this week that Harris and the Biden administration have been the worst on handling the border. Ducey served as governor under former Presidents Barack Obama as well as Donald Trump, as well as Biden.
Ducey asserted that Harris had failed on handling the border and ought to answer for it as a presidential candidate; Biden tasked Harris with handling the illegal immigration crisis in the first months of Biden’s term, resulting in the widespread acknowledgment of her being the “border czar.”
“She’s never been to Arizona’s border to this date. And that is an issue that she has failed on,” said Ducey. “This was all avoidable with attention to the border, and this is something that Kamala Harris will have to answer for in this presidential campaign.”
Not all Republican leaders have been so critical of Harris. They are part of an organized Harris campaign effort to win over voters in this swing state, similar to one launched four years ago by the Biden campaign.
Mesa’s registered Republican mayor, John Giles, endorsed Harris in a widely-reported guest column last month with The Arizona Republic. Giles also happens to be Mormon, and reported as part of growing Mormon support for Harris over Trump.
Giles cited Trump’s response to the 2020 election results as his main reason for opposing the Republican nominee. Giles also claimed that Arizona had benefited from Biden administration policies such as massive funding for infrastructure and semiconductor development. Giles also criticized pro-life and pro-gun policies as “far-right” threats to rights and freedoms.
“Trump poses a serious threat to our nation. We can’t have a felon representing us on the national stage, let alone one who would threaten to abandon NATO and ruin our standing abroad,” wrote Giles. “Kamala Harris is the competent, just and fair leader our country deserves. This year too much is at stake to vote Republican at the top of the ticket.”
Giles has endorsed Democrats for several election cycles to date, as Arizona GOP Chairwoman Gina Swoboda later clarified in a response statement.
“The Mayor has been endorsing Democrats for several election cycles now. This isn’t news, and it certainly doesn’t warrant any of our attention,” said Swoboda. “At the AZGOP, we are focused on expanding support and addressing issues that matter most to Arizonans and the American people.”
Giles gave $100 to Lorena Austin in April, the state’s first nonbinary and gender nonconforming elected official who made headlines recently for hosting an all-ages drag show fundraiser.
Giles also joined as the co-chair of the Arizona chapter to a newly-formed Harris campaign advisory committee, “Republicans for Harris,” which held a press conference earlier this week on their goal to “Stop Trump.”
Republican Mayor of Mesa, AZ John Giles:
“I think the time has come for us as AZ Republicans to admit the obvious…which is that our party’s nominee is not qualified for office and that we need to vote for the adult in the room, and that is Kamala Harris.” pic.twitter.com/ZV7F2KTGIE
— Republican Voters Against Trump (@AccountableGOP) August 5, 2024
The other co-chair of this “campaign within a campaign” within Arizona is Robin Shaw, a former state representative who served in the 1990s. Shaw also campaigned against Trump in the 2020 election alongside the Lincoln Project as part of the “Republicans for Biden” movement.
One of the most notable members of that 2020 movement for Biden was former Senator Jeff Flake.
Former Scottsdale Mayor Sam Campana was also presented as a member of the Republicans for Harris effort.
HAPPENING NOW: Arizona Republicans endorse Vice President Harris and slam Trump for his attacks on democracy. GOP leaders will form a new advisory committee to help the Harris for Arizona campaign reach Republicans who will reject MAGA from now until November 🗳️ pic.twitter.com/UKySKxC0LG
The woman who announced the widely-reported Republicans for Harris press conference, Delaney Corcoran, runs the Harris campaign’s Arizona communications (she ran the Biden campaign’s Arizona communications from March until his announcement to drop out last month). Prior to posting up in Arizona, Corcoran was the communications director and spokesperson for Massachusetts’ Secretary of Education.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
Arizona leaders from both the Democratic and Republican parties reacted to the announcement that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will join Vice President Kamala Harris in her bid to take the presidency in 2024. After being appointed the Democratic nominee in an irregular process disregarding the primary election, but prior to a largely ceremonial Democratic Convention, Harris announced Tuesday that Walz would join her as Vice Presidential nominee. Democrats in the state appeared to be largely toeing the party line with supportive statements, despite the very public snub of VP hopeful Sen. Mark Kelly. Republicans expressed concern that Walz will serve to radicalize the Democratic ticket further to the left.
As reported by AZ Capitol Times, Governor Katie Hobbs hailed the nomination saying she was “absolutely thrilled” about it. “I’ve had the chance to work with him directly on many issues and have seen first-hand his dedication to the American people,” she added, referring to her work with her fellow Democrat Governor. “I know the governors know what it takes to deliver for their states,” Hobbs told reporters. “And I am confident Gov. Walz and Vice President Harris will deliver for Arizona.”
Speaking to AZ Central, the normally rigid Hobbs uncharacteristically gushed at Walz, one of her few gubernatorial colleagues widely judged as more radically left, “Oh my gosh, you should have been in my house and heard my scream when I saw the news this morning. I’m absolutely thrilled that Vice President Harris has chosen him to be her running mate.”
In a post to X, Sen. Kelly, one of Walz’s chief rivals for the post wrote, “Vice President @KamalaHarris and Governor @Tim_Walz are going to move us forward. They’re already building a campaign to unite our country — and @GabbyGiffords and I are ready to do everything we can to help them win.”
Vice President @KamalaHarris and Governor @Tim_Walz are going to move us forward. They’re already building a campaign to unite our country — and @GabbyGiffords and I are ready to do everything we can to help them win.
Democrat Congressman and Senate nominee Ruben Gallego wrote a post to X, emphasizing Walz’s military service, which has come under heavy scrutiny with accusations that the Governor retired early, mid-training to avoid serving in Iraq, and losing his conditional rank as Command Sergeant Major.
Here is an official statement by CSM Thomas Behrends, who stepped up into the position that Tim Walz bailed from prior to the deployment. pic.twitter.com/wlPpZPWjM0
Gallego wrote that Walz, “served our country for 24 years as a National Guardsman. Serving together in the House, I saw firsthand how he’s willing to work with anyone to fight for our kids, our veterans, and our future — and our country is better off because of it. He’s a good man and will continue to serve our country well.”
.@tim_walz served our country for 24 years as a National Guardsman. Serving together in the House, I saw firsthand how he’s willing to work with anyone to fight for our kids, our veterans, and our future — and our country is better off because of it.
“We are incredibly excited to vote the Harris-Walz ticket into the White House this November,” Arizona Democratic Party Chairwoman Yolanda Bejarano offered in a written statement, “Both Vice President Harris and Governor Walz have a strong record of delivering results on the issues that Arizonans care most about– protecting abortion rights, helping working families get ahead, and protecting our democracy.”
Arizona Republicans took a decidedly different and far more concerned view of Walz, citing his heavily criticized lack of response to the 2020 BLM riots in Minneapolis as well as his radical-left policies. Republican Senate nominee Kari Lake shared images of Minneapolis burning and wrote, “While violent mobs were burning down American cities like Minneapolis, @Tim_Walz was cheering them on @KamalaHarris was bailing them out @RubenGallego was marching with them Radicals.”
While violent mobs were burning down American cities like Minneapolis,@Tim_Walz was cheering them on@KamalaHarris was bailing them out@RubenGallego was marching with them
Congressman Andy Biggs (R-AZ5) expressed similar concerns writing, “Tim Walz let his state burn, and Kamala raised money to bail these criminals out of jail. This is the America that the radical Left wants.”
Tim Walz let his state burn, and Kamala raised money to bail these criminals out of jail.
Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ2), himself a veteran Navy SEAL sniper, shared a post to X citing a New York Post article exploring the allegation of stolen valor against Walz. According to the report, retired Command Sergeants Major Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr wrote, “On May 16th, 2005, [Walz] quit, betraying his country, leaving the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion and its Soldiers hanging; without its senior Non-Commissioned Officer, as the battalion prepared for war,” in a letter first revealed by The Daily Wire.
The Republican Party of Arizona presented a damning record of Tim Walz in a post to X writing, “THE RADICAL RECORD OF TIM WALZ”:
Hesitated to deploy the National Guard during the 2020 riots, letting Minneapolis burn
Supports sanctuary cities and states, weakening our border security
Wants taxpayer dollars to fund health care and college for illegal immigrants
Advocates for universal health care and higher taxes on hardworking Americans
Defends the right to abortion on demand up until the moment of birth
Opposes voter ID laws, undermining election integrity
Admitted his “white privilege” and sympathized with vandals who tore down historic statues
Wants to phase out fossil fuels and impose strict emissions standards, harming our economy
Cozied up to China throughout his career, praising their “spectacular” modernization
Faced DUI charges and misrepresented his military rank
The AZGOP concluded, “Tim Walz is DANGEROUS for America. We can’t afford to let the far-left policies of the Harris-Walz ticket destroy our country.”
There are many ways the United States can fail in the areas of border security and immigration policy. Over the past three-and-a-half years, the Biden administration has managed to implement most of those failed policies. A Harris administration would almost certainly make those policy failures complete.
President Joe Biden entered the White House in 2021 with a clear objective to be the anti-Donald Trump president and undo Trump administration policies across the board. Nowhere did this undoing process have greater impact – and create more chaos – than at the U.S.-Mexico border.
On his first day in the Oval Office in 2021, Biden suspended the program formally known as Migrant Protection Protocols. It required immigrants seeking asylum in the United States to remain in Mexico while their cases made their way through U.S. immigration courts. That was the first green light to potential immigrants around the world – and, more importantly, to those who prey on them – that if they could set foot on U.S. soil and make a claim of asylum, they could likely remain in the United States indefinitely. The border became wide open.
Word spread through WhatsApp and other social media networks. Cartels and human traffickers used the policy change as a marketing strategy to compel desperate migrants to hand over their life savings and make the dangerous journey to the border. Immigrants were coached not to evade but instead to actually seek out law enforcement officials and request asylum — no matter how frivolous their claim.
In case axing the Remain in Mexico policy did not deliver a message that was abundantly clear, Biden followed up in April 2022 by rescinding Title 42, the Trump policy initiated during the pandemic that allowed the federal government to rapidly expel illegal immigrants apprehended at the border and block them from seeking asylum. The results were completely predictable.
According to Customs and Border Protection data, there were 73,994 “encounters” along the Southwest border in December 2020. One year later, that monthly figure was 179,253. In December 2022, the number rose to 252,315. Last December, there were 301,982 encounters.
In his zeal to appease progressives and burnish his anti-Trump credentials, Biden failed to consider – or worse, recognized and accepted – the consequences of incentivizing mass illegal immigration. Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Biden tasked with stemming illegal immigration’s “root causes” in March 2021, declared on NBC’s Meet the Press in September 2022: “We have a secure border in that that is a priority for any nation, including ours and our administration.” It was a lie.
Now that she is a presidential candidate, Democrats want you to believe Harris had nothing to do with immigration or the border. The American people know better. They also know that four more years of Biden-era immigration, economic, defense, energy and other policies will be a national disaster.
The Biden administration’s CBP numbers tell the story – 2.5 million encounters at the Southwest border in fiscal year 2023. That is why Gallup reported last month that “significantly more U.S. adults than a year ago, 55% versus 41%, would like to see immigration to the U.S. decreased.” That is the highest level for anti-immigration sentiment since immediately after the 9-11 attacks.
There are two related tragedies here. The first is for the migrants who have endured physical abuse, rape and murder to try to make asylum claims in the United States. Contrary to what the Biden administration and immigrant advocates would like you to believe, illegal migration is not a victimless crime, not to mention the crimes committed by some migrants in this country.
The second tragedy is that anti-immigration sentiment is rising at a time when our economy needs immigrant workers the most. Due primarily to demographics but also to cultural changes in the U.S. workforce, the United States simply does not produce enough native-born workers to fulfill the needs of the agriculture, healthcare and construction industries, to name a few.
The United States needs legal, orderly immigration policies that recognize both our security and economic interests. Unfortunately, the Biden administration’s catastrophic failures on border security and immigration have understandably soured the American people on even sensible reforms. A Harris administration would only make those failures worse.
Dennis E. Nixon is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation and chairman and CEO of IBC Bank, based in Laredo, Texas. He has been deeply involved in border, trade and immigration policy for five decades.
