A House resolution passed this summer as part of a larger defense bill. It is called PROHIBITION ON RECRUITMENT, ENLISTMENT, OR RETENTION OF PERSONS ASSOCIATED OR AFFILIATED WITH GROUPS ASSOCIATED WITH HATE-RELATED VIOLENCE AGAINST GROUPS OR PERSONS OR THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT.  This being pushed forward under the guise it will keep gang members and white supremacist out of the military.  This may be true. However, it is so broad and vague in the powers it bestows upon the Attorney General it could possibly set the U.S. military up for ideological purges of mainstream conservatives and Christians in the name of “eliminating hate in the ranks.”  

This is HR 2467 Sec 524:

1. “A person associated or affiliated with a group associated with hate-related violence against groups or persons or the United States government, as determined by the Attorney General may not be recruited, enlisted, or retained in the armed forces.”

2. A “Hate Group” is defined both explicitly and as “other groups or organizations that are determined by the attorney general to be of a violent and extremist in nature.”

3. Evidence that one is associated with a hate group is defined both explicitly and as “...a person is associated or affiliated with a group associated with hate-related violence...Individuals known to have attended meetings, rallies, conferences, or other activities sponsored by a hate group. Individuals known to be involved in online activities with a hate group, including being engaged in online discussion groups or blog or other postings that support, encourage, or affirm the group’s extremist or violent views and goals. Individuals who are known to have in their possession photographs, written testimonials (including diaries or journals), propaganda, or other materials indicating involvement or affiliation with a hate group. Such materials can include photographs, written materials relating to or referring to extreme hatred that are clearly not of an academic nature, possession of objects that venerate or glorify hate inspired violence, and related materials, as determined by the Attorney General.”

4. The military will have to screen all recruits and discharge “immediately” anyone classified in accordance IAW with potential law.

If HR 2467 Sec 524 becomes law:

1.The U.S. Attorney General will be given carte blanche power to define what is a hate group.

2. The military will have no choice but to literally conduct ideological purges among its ranks.

3. There will be no due process.

A few questions...Who sponsored this? Rep Alcee Hastings (D) Florida. Who is the current Attorney General?  Eric Holder. How does the Department of Justice define “hate groups”?  It defines hate crimes, but I can find nothing on where it officially lists “hate groups.” How are progressive congressional and executive leaders defining “hate” these days? Here are a few examples.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGRUx2b0ArM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV84OBtGpSQ&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45QMr3pMYVM

If you are associated with the Tea Parties or the 9/12 Project and you are in the military, it’s very possible you could be labeled as associated with a hate group? If you are a member of a church which disagrees with homosexuality, could you be classified as a hater, too?

What is going on here, folks?

 

Years ago, I was lucky enough to fly an air force helicopter to the Borger Texas Air Show. A small Panhandle ranching and oil town near Amarillo, Borger represents the best of American patriotism and hospitality. 

Under the hot, dusty summer sun the good people of Borger gathered around our HH-60G Pavehawk. They shook our hands, asked questions, and proudly told us about their sons and daughters serving in the military. As the day wore on and the show drew to a close, the crew and I prepared the helicopter for departure. That’s when a grizzled old-timer, a working man in dirty steel-toed boots and worn overalls, approached through the thinning crowd. Holding his hand was a wide-eyed little boy, no more than six.

“Sir,” the old man asked softly, “Would it be alright if my grandson sits in your helicopter?”

I helped the boy, his eyes beaming, into the pilot’s seat. “It’s not my helicopter, sir,” I replied to the old man, “You helped pay for it.”

This tax season it’s important to remind ourselves the defense of the nation is paid for by its hardworking citizens. Freedom isn’t free, in fact last year it cost our nation over $512 billion dollars in the baseline defense budget alone. While Americans get a fantastic return on their money, its still important for servicemen and women to remember it’s not the military’s money, nor the government’s money – it’s the people’s money, entrusted to their volunteer warriors to defend them and our way of life.

A close friend of mine, a veteran who owns a very successful software development firm, once confided to me how much his small business paid in taxes. The amount was stunning. It’s hard to understand how small businesses survive under such crushing tax burdens. My friend, and millions like him, not only pay for the military’s bombs and bullets, but paychecks, retirements, fuel, dependent medical costs, recreation centers, and absolutely everything else in the massive Defense Department and Veterans Administration. He grumbles about his taxes, but makes it clear he supports every dime spent on the military. He’s not alone.

The military is one of America’s must trusted institutions. Many dislike the federal government, but revere the armed forces.  Since Vietnam the military has fought hard to earn it’s cherished place in the hearts of the American people. This respect must be earned every day, not only in how we conduct ourselves on the battlefield, but how we act as stewards of the public’s money.

In 1953 President Eisenhower said this about defense spending, “This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.”  Eisenhower knew better than anyone the need for strong defense, but clearly understood military spending takes resources from the part of the economy which creates real wealth. Every dollar the Pentagon spends is a dollar my friend can’t use to hire someone, or a dollar that old oil worker in Borger Texas can’t spend on his grandson. 

Times are tough and many Americans are struggling to make ends meet as they square their tax accounts with Uncle Sam before April 15th. They give the military those hard earned dollars willingly, with both pride and patriotism. They only ask the military spend it wisely and be good stewards of the resources bestowed upon them. So the next time a grateful citizen thanks you for your service, thank them for their support.

Here’s an economics lesson for the American serviceman. Reach into your pocket and pull out a dollar bill. Its value isn’t set by gold or any precious metal, only law and world currency markets determine its worth. Why, then, would someone buy mere paper not backed by a tangible asset? For the same reason you might buy stock in a company. Foreigners buy our dollars because they know America has the greatest return on investment of any endeavor in history.

Historically, America is where the world’s smart money runs in troubled times. But now America finds itself in hard times. No longer a manufacturing giant, we’re now a consumer economy shouldering crippling public and private debt. The US is hemorrhaging trillions in real estate and corporate wealth while embroiled in two expensive wars. A 2007 BBC survey found America’s standing abroad ranking only above Israel, North Korea and Iran. With all this gloom, does the world’s smart money still consider America a safe bet?

Absolutely, and the US serviceman has something to do with it.

Since the early 1990s America led the way building the post-Cold War global economy, an international free trade system. For better or worse, the United States is the lynchpin holding it all together. When the world buys our dollars and debt they essentially cast a vote of confidence not only in America, but the global economic system we helped establish. This is true, even during the current crisis, due in large part to the US military.

Defense critics point out the US spends more on defense than the next 14 nations combined. True, but we also directly or indirectly protect those 14 nations’ access to international trade. From Bangkok to Baghdad, international merchants know goods and services flow unhindered because of US military power. This arrangement benefits our friends and rivals alike. China, the world’s manufacturing superpower, exported $1.2 trillion in goods last year, but China doesn’t protect the international trade routes on which she so strongly depends. Nor is it African ships leading the charge against pirates off Somalia or OPEC armies guaranteeing the flow of oil through the volatile Persian Gulf region. It’s the American fighting man and woman who keep global trade free.

Foreign nations may rail against US military power in public, but privately they vote with their money. They understand two important facts: our forces operate with immense restraint and in strict adherence to law; and no international coalition can yet match America’s military prowess. Would China act with our humanity and restraint? Can the U.N. match our decisiveness and competence should they become protectors of the global economy? This is why, rhetoric aside, the world trusts us to protect the global market.

For this reason our leaders must tread carefully. Recently, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass) called for a 25% cut in the defense budget. One lesson the financial crisis taught us is risk assumed by one global player is risk assumed by all. If America can’t or won’t protect the global trade system our national stock will surely go down. Investors will take their money elsewhere and other nations will fill the power vacuum we leave behind. What will our dollars and debt be worth then?

The 21^stcentury US Military isn’t just protecting our homeland or hunting down terrorists, but ensuring the global economy remains free.  If you’re an American serviceman reading this, you truly hold that dollar in your hands. It isn’t backed by gold...

...It’s backed by steel. 

Entitlements have not drained the economy because they drained the only part of federal spending that Washington was willing to reduce: defense. This was endurable because conventional threats were decreasing - primarily due to a strong defense commitment. However, as Sept. 11 demonstrated, reduction can not be an indefinite exercise.

...Despite a tax system more onerous than anyone now is willing to countenance, the taxes raised are insufficient to sustain entitlements and the rest of the federal budget...

...For many the entitlement tidal wave is a new story. In fact, it is merely the retelling of an old one. Both stories reach the same conclusion: uncontrolled spending. There is no longer a silent spending cut to offset entitlements and even the most draconian of tax codes and tax levels can not produce enough revenue to support it and the rest of the federal government.

As a young lieutenant I was an intelligence officer assigned to Headquarters, Strategic Air Command. My mentors, grizzled Cold Warriors and experienced analysts, predicted the Soviet Union’s fall. They were certain its decrepit political and economic systems couldn’t withstand the tidal waves of a rapidly changing world. It was not if, they said, but how and when. Watching their assessments come to pass was the most formative event of my early career. It taught me these lessons: nothing is invincible or invulnerable, even superpowers; and great human events can be reasonably predicted in a logical and quantifiable way. Two examples come to mind.

In 1997 my squadron’s intelligence officer, a lieutenant, stood in front of a photo of Osama Bin Laden and told us this relatively unknown figure was an evil genius who would cause America great harm. In 2004 Dr. Fred E. Foldarvy, a renowned economist, assessed the housing bubble would burst and bottom out in 2008, followed by a significant recession. Years in advance their predictions were fairly accurate. Social, economic, and political crises don’t ‘just happen,' they can be, and often are, accurately predicted.    

Today, wise men are sounding another warning, one concerning America’s military future. Recently, Colonel Robert Suminsby, Kirtland Air Force Base Commander, made these public statements to a group of local civic leaders, “If left unchecked, the growth of spending on Social Security and Medicare will eventually crush the defense budget…If we don’t buy new aircraft and satellites now, we simply won’t have an Air Force in another 20 years.” The facts support him. Even the President’s own 2008 budget calls this situation “unsustainable.”

Between now and 2030, entitlement programs, primarily Medicare, will dominate the federal budget to the eventual exclusion of almost all other spending, including defense. 

These programs began in the mid-1960s when senior citizens were less than 10% of the U.S. population and over 5 workers supported each retiree. Today, Baby Boomers (27% of the population) are starting to retire, just as healthcare costs soar 6.9% annually.  Now, only 3 workers support each retiree. In 2007, 41% of Medicare funding came from the same general revenue as defense. In three years Medicare starts operating in the red and will siphon even more money from general revenue.America’s retiree pool is rising, the labor pool is decreasing, and medical costs are skyrocketing. If this equation continues unabated by 2030, with only about 2 taxpaying workers per retiree, Medicare will devour most federal revenue and starve defense spending.

This is clearly a defense issue. Many serving today will feel its full effects. No one associated with America’s defense will escape its reach. The coming Medicare spending crisis is a tsunami and will swallow everything in its path. Our ability to modernize, sustain, and employ military forces will be crippled. Quality of life, healthcare, and retirement benefits will be devastated.  As you read this, the water is rapidly receding to the horizon where a giant wave of red ink is looming. We are neither invincible nor invulnerable in the face of this coming crisis, but we can avert disaster if we examine the facts and heed the warnings.

If you're a concerned American citizen YOU MUST READ this speech entitled "Fiscal Stewardship and Defense Transformation" by the Honorable David M. Walker, US Comptroller. You can find it here: www.gao.gov/cghome/d07600cg.pdf. Put your coffee down, turn off the TV, and click on this link. It is truly that important.

Mr. Walker displays the type of leadership badly needed in our nation. Once again, we have a man in a place of power calling it like he's sees it. His speech before the United States Naval Academy in March of last year should be required reading for all military officers.

 

Here are some excepts:

"Our country is now the world’s largest debtor nation. And our mounting debt is undermining our ability to deal with a range of current and emerging challenges in the 21st century. Our mounting debt is also mortgaging the future of younger Americans like each of you."

"But unless we make significant changes soon, America may look very different in the future. With the looming retirement of the baby boomers, spiraling health care costs, and plummeting personal savings rates, we face unprecedented fiscal risks in the years ahead. The facts on this aren’t in dispute. If we stay on our present path, the United States faces a prolonged period of debt and decline."

 

"The truth is our country faces not one but four interrelated deficits...if you look at the net operating cost of the federal government on an accrual basis, which is how companies report, you get a deficit of $450 billion...We’ve returned to savings levels not seen since the depths of the Great Depression. In fact, America has among the lowest overall savings rates of any major industrialized nation...large government deficits translate into large trade deficits as well as a weakened dollar. So, it shouldn’t surprise you that in 2006, our trade deficit hit a record $763 billion and the value of the dollar has in fact declined...Finally, there’s America’s leadership deficit, which is probably the most serious and sobering of all."

"Right now, some parts of the defense budget, especially military health care costs, are out of control. This simply isn’t sustainable."

"Unlike fraud and abuse, waste doesn’t necessarily involve a violation of the law. It’s more about getting poor value for the money, usually because of mismanagement, poor judgment, inappropriate directions, a failure to act, or weak oversight."

"Entitlement reform is especially urgent. Unless we reform Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, these programs will eventually crowd out all other federal spending, including defense. Based on historical federal tax levels, by 2040 our government could be doing little more than sending out Social Security checks and paying interest on our massive national debt."