BryanGruhlke.com

Don’t forget to leave your comments, opinions, or hate mail. All entries will be published (unless you use bad language, so keep it civil).

The bill currently in front of the House of Representatives must be stopped. It is a massive tax increase – the burden of which will be placed on every American.

The goal of this bill isn’t to improve our country’s ecology, but rather to dramatically increase the income of the Federal Government in a sly, back-door way. Even Greenpeace says this bill is no good – what more proof do you need?!

CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS NOW!

Call the House’s phone switchboard at (202) 224-3121. If the line is busy, keep trying, but also give your Congressional Representative’s local office a call (find the right number here). Tell them you want them to vote NO against this horrendous piece of legislation. Tell them you will actively campaign against them if they vote yes or present.

Reasons to Deny Cap and Trade

• Increases the cost of products manufactured here, in the United States. Are corporations going to accept less profit? No! They’ll move the jobs outside the country (thanks Democrats for pushing more jobs to India!).
• Any additional expenses brought on by this new tax will be passed directly onto you – the American consumer. We’ll all be paying more to our Government (and what do we get back?).
• This bill gives the already powerful EPA even further reaching authority – who will stop these eager government bureaucrats from sticking their noses into everything?
• This bill disproportionately affects lower class Americans – who really stands for this group (hint: not Liberals)?

Don’t forget! Tomorrow is Tax Day here in the United States. And it is also the start of the new American Revolution. There are literally thousands of Tea Parties planned throughout the country to show our displeasure at the management of our government (regardless of the majority party).

Check out Tax Day Tea Party to see a list of confirmed Tea Parties and plan to attend one. Let your opinion be heard!

I will try to attend the Des Moines Tea Party tomorrow at the State Capitol (starting at noon). Stop by – don’t be afraid Leave a comment below if you are attending and I will try to find you tomorrow.

A note to the Obama-haters – the Tea Party is not a bash Obama/Democrats event. It is designed to attempt to create change at all levels of our government; to try to get us back on course and following the Constitution (still the greatest document the world has created). If you just want to gripe about Obama, please: stay home.

Last night President Obama delivered his first State of the Union address to Congress. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal provided the minority party’s direct response after Mr. Obama concluded.

Jindal described several of the incredibly wasteful expenses included in the recently passed “stimulus” package. $300 million for new government cars (at least the big three auto makers will have a few sales this year), $8 billion for the development of high speed rail from Las Vegas to Disneyland (congrats to Senator Harry Reid for the huge piece of pork), and $140 million to monitor volcanic activity. Jindal is right – Congress “should be monitoring the eruption of wasteful spending.” The Democrats spending spree is irresponsible and only stimulates the growth of government, not of its citizens.

The government must cut waste, control energy expenses (which includes increasing renewable energy, drilling for more oil, and more nuclear power plants), allow for private universal health care (not government run, but rather patient managed), and a huge focus on bettering the education of our children.

Congress hardly read the massive $800 billion stimulus bill and did not offer the opportunity to the American people to review the package and provide their opinions.

The way to strengthening of our country is to decrease spending, empower small business owners, grow our economy, and create new jobs. It is not to grow government as the Democrats would have us believe. “Don’t let anyone tell you America’s best days are behind us.”

Bob Vander Plaats

Already the 2010 gubernatorial campaign in Iowa is heating up. Chet Culver, the Democratic incumbent, is up against Republicans Bob Vander Plaats and Bill Northey (along with several other potential candidates).

It seems we already have a defining issue for the campaigns – the proposed Gas Tax increase. Both Vander Plaats and Culver oppose the idea, while a few other Republicans support it. The increase is designed to ease the financial shortcomings of the state. The current legislature does not want to erase any existing services, but income has dropped. “Where to get the money?” they asked.

How can this be considered acceptable? If I, as an individual citizen, lost a portion of my income would it be deemed appropriate to demand that my lifestyle not be affected? No, I would be expected to cut my expenses – I couldn’t just require others to give me more money.

Iowa needs to realize the need to cut expenses. Over the past few years this state’s government has increased under Chet Culver’s leadership. It is time to scale back and remove the unused, poorly implemented, or ineffective programs that are dragging us into debt. Rather than grab more money from the citizens to make up for poor planning Iowa needs to find a way to do with what it currently has.

Will it be hard? Probably. But no one should be forced to make up for someone’s errors – especially when that someone is the government.

Your Thoughts, Please!

Please let me know what you think! Write your thoughts, opinions, or points in this articles Comments. I appreciate everyone’s responses!