This week, White House economic advisor Paul Volker said that the United States ought to consider imposing a European-style value added tax (VAT) to get the deficit under control. He said, “If at the end of the day we need to raise taxes, we should raise taxes.” A VAT tax is essentially a national sales tax, which would be added to existing state sales taxes. France’s VAT is nearly 20%. So just imagine all of your recent purchases costing 20% more.

That may seem outrageous to you, but Obama’s economic advisor doesn’t think so. Volker said that a VAT “was not as toxic an idea” today as it has been in the past. And just to be clear, Volker was not suggesting that we replace the income tax with a VAT tax, but that the VAT be added to the income tax. Evidently, Volker wouldn’t mind paying $7.00 a gallon for gas either, because he also recommended that we consider taxing carbon too.

Just like their love of socialized medicine, liberal politicians are drawn to the VAT like a moth to a flame. The reason is simple: If you’re going to fundamentally transform America into a Big Government, European-style welfare state, you’re going to need big, European-style taxes. Last year, Speaker Nancy Pelosi told PBS’s Charlie Rose, “Somewhere along the way, a value-added tax plays into this. …I think it’s fair to look at a value-added tax as well.”

Is a VAT tax imminent? That depends. Obama’s spending is clearly out of control. Yesterday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Congress that the deficit is the biggest threat to long-term economic growth and stability. I guarantee you that in the weeks ahead, we’ll hear from Obama about the need to get the deficit he created under control.

But there are only two ways to get the deficit under control – cut spending or increase taxes. Volker and Pelosi are clearly on the side of raising taxes, and Obama, who has already added $2 trillion to the national debt (that doesn’t even include ObamaCare), is clearly unable to restrain himself when it comes to spending. So I predict that all the rhetoric we’re going to hear about “fiscal discipline” in the days ahead will be laying the ground work for massive tax hikes down the road.

While the liberal media continues to lecture conservatives about civility, news broke today that the FBI arrested a Pennsylvania man, Norman Leboon, for making an online death threat against House Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia. Last week, Leboon posted a profanity-laced rant against the conservative Jewish congressman on YouTube. In his diatribe, Leboon, who claims to be a Muslim convert, threatened to kill Cantor and his family. It turns out that Norman Leboon also donated $505 to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

The man appears to be a complete loon who has made many threats, so I won’t try to make him a “poster boy” for the Left. But, if the situation were reversed – if a Tea Party member who donated to John McCain’s campaign had been arrested for threatening to assassinate a Democrat leader – it would be headline news for days. There would be calls for the conservative leaders to renounce and condemn the Tea Party. There would be much ink spent on column after column about the extremism on the Right. And, of course, all of it would be due to obvious racism.

Over the weekend, New York Times columnist Frank Rich again picked up the canard that conservative opposition to healthcare “reform” is based on some “ism” or phobia. Rich wrote:

“If Obama’s first legislative priority had been immigration or financial reform or climate change, we would have seen the same trajectory. The conjunction of a black president and a female speaker of the House — topped off by a wise Latina on the Supreme Court and a powerful gay Congressional committee chairman — would sow fears of disenfranchisement among a dwindling and threatened minority in the country no matter what policies were in play.”
In one sentence, Rich dismissed the concerns of nearly half the country (based on the latest polls) for its alleged racism, sexism, xenophobia and homophobia. Once again, the “tolerant” Left is proving just how intolerant it can be.

So, I ask Rich this simple question: If a future black president and a female future Speaker of the House and a wise Latina on the Supreme Court were pushing for lower taxes, smaller government, a strong national defense and adherence to our Constitution, does he really think that the streets would be filled with Tea Party members demonstrating in opposition? Of course not! They might be in the streets cheering, but I suspect Rich would still find something to complain about.

Here we go again, folks. The liberal Washington establishment and its Big Media allies once again are trying to smear and demonize millions of Americans who oppose the radical Obama agenda. If you are against growing government power and higher taxes, and are concerned about elite disdain for our Constitution, well you must be a thug, racist, know-nothing or KKK sympathizer.

The latest effort to silence dissent began over the weekend when liberal Congressmen claimed they were spat on and suffered racial slurs when they walked through a crowd of conservative demonstrators from the Capitol to their offices. I strongly condemn such behavior, but there is little or no evidence that it happened. And if some jerk(s) did commit such offenses, it is obvious to any fair observer that they were not representative of the 30,000 people who came to Washington, D.C., to voice their opposition to Obama’s takeover of healthcare.

That crowd looked to be largely a middle class gathering of typical Americans, exercising their constitutional right to peacefully assemble and petition their elected officials. The most frequently voiced chant was “Kill The Bill!” Numerous polls indicated that the overwhelming majority of the American people shared that sentiment.

By the way, the members of Congress who marched through the crowd would normally have used the underground tunnel from the Capitol to their offices. Normally they don’t want to be bothered by pesky citizens. Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid famously said that he knows when it is summer in Washington because the tourists sweat and stink too much.

But on Sunday, these liberals chose to walk through the upset protestors in the hopes, I suspect, of provoking an incident. Nonetheless, if someone used a racial slur, I condemn it. But I also have no doubt that such a bigot in no way represents the heartfelt concerns millions of Americans feel regarding the direction our country is being taken.

The effort to smear conservatives picked up momentum in the last few days after bricks were thrown through the windows of several district offices of Democrats who voted for ObamaCare. Again, this type of vandalism is unacceptable and also not representative of the millions of Americans who don’t want more and more of our economy and lives run by liberal politicians and Washington bureaucrats. To smear these Americans because of a few thuggish acts is simply a dishonest effort to silence Middle America. Conservative Senator Jim Bunning was vehemently attacked in the media a few weeks ago when he blocked a spending bill. In short order, he was the target of death threats, but the press continued to pour on the invective.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, I received dozens of notes from people around the country whose homes and cars had been vandalized because they were displaying conservative signs. The media treated each incident as an isolated event. No one suggested the vandalism was the natural result of super-heated rhetoric by the Obama campaign and leftwing groups against conservatives and eight years of comparing George W. Bush to Hitler. And where was the media’s concern about vandalism of churches during the campaign over Proposition 8 in California?

Throwing a brick through a window is a crime and the person responsible should be aggressively prosecuted. Intimidating voters on Election Day, as the New Black Panther Party did at a polling place in Philadelphia, is also a crime. But Obama’s Justice Department dropped the case and has stonewalled any attempt to find out who allowed this violation of voting rights to go unanswered.

A Justice Department unwilling to prosecute voter intimidation when it comes from the radical Left is a much greater threat to our republic than one idiot throwing a rock into an empty office.

By this morning, the effort to smear you was becoming downright bizarre. Sarah Palin was being attacked because she announced the names of the congressmen she is “targeting” and wrote on her blog, “Don’t retreat, reload.” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is getting slapped because he said let’s get Pelosi ready for “the firing line” in November. Get it? We are supposed to believe that using words like “targeting” and “firing line” is somehow an invitation to violence.

I have been in Washington for 35 years, and the phrase “targeting” a congressman has been used frequently by both parties. At a June 2008 rally, candidate Obama brought the crowd to its feet when he said, “If they [Republicans] bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.” Now did Obama really mean that Democrats would bring guns to the debate? Of course not.

The political Left, including Pelosi and Reid, have been using supercharged rhetoric against Middle America for a long time. Speaker Pelosi and House Democrat Leader Steny Hoyer called town hall protestors “un-American.” Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid said they were “evil mongers.” You may recall that during the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama suggested that some voters in Pennsylvania were “bitter” and “clinging to guns and religion.”

Rhetoric like that has made a lot of slow-to-anger Americans, most of whom had never attended a demonstration until last year, more than a little peeved. And the media don’t care. In fact, liberal talking heads have mocked their fellow citizens with crude references. The Left is losing the debate and so it has reverted to its favorite tactics, using race and false charges of extremism to intimidate and silence the opposition.

It won’t work. Last month, a CNN poll found that 56% of Americans felt that “the federal government has become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens.”

Here’s breaking news: Rep. Eric Cantor, the second-highest ranking House Republican, says that his district office was shot at last night. Now, who would have done that? Cantor was a leading opponent of ObamaCare. He is also a Jew. I won’t hold my breath waiting for the Left to denounce the growing anti-Semitism in its ranks.

I promise you that I will vehemently fight, and do my best to expel, anyone from the conservative cause who is a bigot or a thug. But I will not surrender to a leftwing attempt to smear you and the millions of other good and decent Americans who share our traditional values.

Last night, the House of Representatives passed ObamaCare by a vote of 219-to-212. The most bi-partisan aspect of the bill was the opposition to it. Republicans voted unanimously against it and they were joined by 34 Democrats. This bill raises taxes by more than $500 billion. It imposes new taxes on investments and new fines on businesses. It imposes unconstitutional mandates on Americans and funds abortion. This is what happens when liberals get power.

In a weekend of outrageous statements, the worst was to hear Obama and Pelosi describing their takeover of nearly 20% of our economy in the language of liberty. They cloaked one of the biggest expansions of government and retractions of liberty in our nation’s history in conservative rhetoric. For example, Nancy Pelosi hailed the vote as “great act of patriotism.”

After the House vote, President Obama said, “We proved that this government — a government of the people and by the people — still works for the people.” But the American people didn’t want this bill. The latest Rasmussen poll found that likely voters opposed it 41%-to-54%. In fact, there is not a single poll the president can point to in the past 60 days that shows public support for the legislation that passed last night.

Conservatives did everything in their power to stop socialized medicine. The reconciliation process used to circumvent conservative efforts is proof of that. And while the Left is celebrating today, it has damaged our democratic republic in the process. The bill was written behind closed doors. Committee hearings were a charade. It passed the Senate not because of the legislation’s merits, but because of special deals and kickbacks. Until the national uproar, Speaker Pelosi had planned on passing it without even voting on it.

When a Republican doesn’t vote consistently for conservative principles, he is called a RINO – a Republican In Name Only. I don’t know what you call a Democrat who betrays his core principles, but this bill should be called the “Stupak Abortion Subsidy Act.”

Rep. Bart Stupak has been elected to Congress as a Democrat since 1992 in a relatively conservative district. But he was always pro-life. Yesterday, Stupak sold out his pro-life values for an executive order from the most pro-abortion president in history. An executive order cannot override legislation. That’s why the Hyde Amendment was so important and has been reaffirmed by every Congress for more than 30 years. The Senate bill funds abortion, which is why Stupak consistently said he was a “No” vote until the very end.

My friends, this is just the beginning. Obama said recently that he was going to wear us down. The Left isn’t done. Immigration “reform” is next. This is gut check time for our values and American Values is not giving up. We have serious concerns with the constitutionality of the healthcare legislation, as do several states. We are exploring various legal avenues to continue the fight for our values in the courts.

Now if your reaction is to throw your hands up in despair, give up and walk away, then the Left has worn you down. But if your reaction is to recommit to the values we cherish and fight even harder, then it’s not too late to make America the “shining city upon a hill” our Founding Fathers envisioned. I’m not giving up and I pray you will continue to stand with me!

A Change Of Heart? Not Really.

When I heard Nancy Pelosi this weekend say that Washington liberals share many values with the Tea Party movement, I nearly fell out of my chair. On ABC’s “This Week,” Pelosi said, “We [Washington Democrats] share some of the views of the tea partiers in terms of the role of special interest in Washington, D.C. …And that’s why I’ve fought the special interest, whether it’s on energy, whether it’s on health insurance, whether it’s on pharmaceuticals and the rest.” She went on to suggest that conservatives were “hijacking the good intentions” of Tea Party patriots “who share some of our concerns we have.”

Are there no limits to Pelosi’s duplicity? The Left today is nothing but a loosely cobbled collection of special interest groups and grievance mongers. The only thread that binds them is their disdain for the common sense traditional values that animate the Tea Party movement, pro-family voters and pro-defense conservatives!

But what makes Pelosi’s comments even more laughable is that this is the same Nancy Pelosi who called the town hall protestors “un-American.” This is the same Nancy Pelosi who accused the Tea Party marchers of being Nazi sympathizers because some were carrying signs comparing ObamaCare to fascism. This is the same Nancy Pelosi who said the Tea Parties and town hall protests reminded her of the atmosphere in California during the 1970s that led to riots and violence. This is the same Nancy Pelosi who mocked the Tea Parties as “Astroturf,” suggesting that it was not a real grassroots movement.

But today talking about the Tea Parties makes Nancy all warm and fuzzy inside. The Speaker from San Francisco wants them to believe that she truly understands their values and shares the concerns of the Tea Party Patriots. You know liberals are nervous when they start saying nice things about conservatives. So what’s going on here?

The fact is, Pelosi is trying to co-opt the Tea Party movement. Some liberals hope that they can refocus the populist outrage against Big Government by turning it against Big Business. Watch for the assault on free enterprise to intensify in the days ahead. Radicals will escalate their class warfare rhetoric, hoping to convince good folks that the party of Government Motors, socialized medicine, record deficits and sky-high unemployment is really looking out for the little guy. Don’t let your friends and family members fall for it. Take every opportunity to point out the Left’s socialist instincts. Make sure your friends and family members are registered to vote and fully informed.

Voter Registration Sundays

It is difficult to overemphasize just how critical the upcoming elections are. So much is at stake – out-of-control spending, looming tax hikes, socialized medicine, massive energy taxes, unemployment, etc. While our budget deficit dominates the headlines, America is confronting another growing deficit that threatens our prosperity – our virtue deficit.

President Obama wants to use taxpayer dollars to fund abortions in his so-called “healthcare reform” plan. The meaning of marriage is under attack in the courts. The assault on Judeo-Christian values is real.

I know there are a lot of pastors who receive this daily report. You are in a unique position to influence the debate over our values, and I’m proud to encourage your participation in “Voter Registration Sundays.” Under the direction of Father Frank Pavone, a national coalition of leading pro-life, pro-family organizations is calling on religious leaders to designate four weekends this year – March 14th, May 23rd, July 4th and September 12th – as “Voter Registration Sundays.”

Voter registration has never been easier, yet even among men and women of faith voter participation is not what it should be. And that’s why your leadership is essential. In talking with members of your congregation, ask if they are registered to vote. Use your influence – in person and in the pulpit – to promote good citizenship and active participation in our public policy process. Each state has its own regulations and deadlines. You can learn more at our website or at www.politicalresponsbility.com.

Fighting Back!

A few weeks ago, Congress passed so-called “pay-as-you-go” rules mandating that new spending be paid for either with spending cuts in other programs or tax hikes. It was a pathetic attempt by this administration and Congress to appear fiscally responsible in the wake of record deficits and the failed stimulus bill. Last week, liberal politicians tried to sneak through another $10 billion in “emergency” spending on a variety of programs – from unemployment compensation and rural TV, Medicare payments to transportation projects. The House passed the bill on a voice vote and the Senate was supposed to do the same.

But Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning, a staunch conservative, called the liberals’ bluff, objected to the additional spending and stopped the bill dead in its tracks, turning what was supposed to be an uneventful weekend into a nightmare for many bureaucrats. Thousands of federal workers may be furloughed because of Bunning’s action.

Media and liberal elites are mocking the senator as an “embarrassment to Washington,” but the real embarrassment is Washington’s “business as usual” mentality. Senator Bunning and other fiscal conservatives have suggested that the administration cancel the TARP program or use unspent stimulus funds to pay for these sorts of projects, rather than adding on more debt. Thankfully, Bunning isn’t backing down, saying, “If we can’t find $10 billion somewhere for a bill that everybody in this body supports, we will never pay for anything.” He added, “There are going to be other bills brought to this floor that are not going to be paid for, and I’m going to object every time they do it.” Good for him.

Ending Welfare (Reform) As We Know It

Barack Obama came to the presidency promising to be America’s first post-partisan president. It is, therefore, ironic that one of his signature achievements has been to roll back one of the great bipartisan triumphs of the last two decades, welfare reform. In a Washington Times op-ed today, I examine all of the ways in which Obama’s overspending returns the poor to dependency. You can read my piece here.

Governors Chris Christie (R) of New Jersey and Bob McDonnell (R) of Virginia are both struggling with massive budget deficits. So naturally they are proposing tremendous spending programs on dozens of dubious projects, right? No. Massive tax hikes? No. True to their word, Christie and McDonnell are cutting spending, reducing the size of state government and rolling back regulations.

In Virginia, Gov. Bob McDonnell is dealing with a $2 billion deficit by “eliminating more than 500 jobs over three years, instituting 10 furlough days for state workers and slashing services…” The governor is proposing $730 million in cuts to the state’s education budget over two years and five state parks will be closed. But McDonnell’s budget, which must pass Virginia’s Democrat-controlled state Senate, includes no tax hikes.

To listen to the Left, you’d think Armageddon was upon us. There is great wailing and gnashing of teeth among liberals and Big Government activists in Trenton and Richmond. This will be a good test to see just how serious voters are about smaller government and reining in out-of-control spending.

Last week I suggested that upcoming healthcare summit at the White House was just for show – a play fake to give Obama the appearance of bi-partisanship, but was really intended to set the stage for congressional liberals to “go nuclear” and ram ObamaCare through Congress using budget reconciliation rules. We got some unfortunate evidence validating my concerns yesterday.

More than a dozen Senate Democrats and 119 House Democrats are asking the president not only to use reconciliation, but also to include the most radical ideas, such as the so-called “public option.” Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), the third highest ranking House Democrat, said yesterday, “If you’re not going to do a 60-vote strategy, but instead a 50-plus-one strategy [reconciliation], the public option could very well be part of this package.”

This is a very disturbing development. Here’s why: The public option is a gigantic leap toward socialism and Big Government control over your life. The public option is the vehicle liberals will use to achieve single-payer socialized medicine in America. Barney Frank admits it. The radical Left knows it. And Barack Obama wants it.

President Bush was both loved and loathed for his resoluteness of purpose. But his successor has taken that trait to an entirely new level, to the point that he’s become obstinate in the face of a clear reality.

President Obama, his lieutenants and media allies claim that prevailing public anger is rooted in frustration over a Washington that’s “getting nothing done.” They are wrong. As I explain in my Human Events column today, most of the outrage is the result of a Washington that’s doing too much to push policies that have always failed.  Thank you.

Drop everything! Sit down and take a deep breath. The United Nations yesterday issued a shocking, mind-blowing report declaring for the first time that it has evidence that one of the world’s nastiest governments has been developing a nuclear warhead. The name of rogue regime U.N. nuclear inspectors say has been developing nukes is …wait for it…Iran.

Yes, I know: we’ve known for many years, through reports by Israel and others, that the Mullahs have been working feverishly to develop a nuclear weapon. But an American intelligence assessment concluded in 2007 that Iran’s work on a bomb had been suspended in 2003.

Iran’s nuclear program did not end. The new U.N. report, according to the New York Times, also presented evidence that Iran had tested ways of detonating weapons and had worked extensively to design warheads small enough to fit atop a missile.

The scandal here is that while the entire intelligence community was berated when no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq, there won’t be much criticism of its incorrect Iran-nuke assessment. This even though the potential consequences of  failing to identify the nuclear threat of a regime led by a man who thinks of America as “the Great Satan” and vows to “wipe Israel off the map” are much more dire.

No one is certain whether Iran already has a nuclear capability or merely is on the cusp of attaining it. What we can be certain of is that if the U. N. has determined that the Iranians are developing nukes, they are probably already past the point of no return.

Well it didn’t take long. Just a few hours after deranged Joseph Stack flew his plane on a “Kamikaze” attack into an IRS building in Austin, liberals were trying to link the madman to conservatives. The left-wing web site Daily Kos said the incident was a case of Tea Party “anti-government forces” launching their “first 9/11 inspired terrorist attack.” Jonathan Capehart writing in his blog at The Washington Post said Stack’s “alienation” reminded him of “the extreme elements of the Tea Party movement.” Unbelievable! When a jihadist yells radical Muslim slogans while shooting U.S. soldiers, the left tells us it doesn’t have anything to do with Islam. But a deranged tax evader in Texas suddenly morphs into every conservative. Before the day is over they will be blaming Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney!

Here is the dirty secret the Left doesn’t want you to know. Joseph Stack’s “philosophy,” to the extent he had one, was closer to the left-wing drivel at Daily Kos and moveon.org than it is to the patriots who are in the Tea Party movement.

Joseph Stack printed his manifesto on his business web page yesterday as he took off to try to kill IRS employees. In it he rails at the wealthy, GM executives, drug companies and insurance companies. His rhetoric sounded like Obama style populism – heavy on class warfare. At the end of this drivel he attacks capitalism and approvingly quotes Karl Marx: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” That is the same thing Barack Obama said to Joe the Plumber when he assured him he just wanted “to spread the wealth around.” No, Joe Stack wasn’t any conservative – he was a left-wing populist!