January 13, 2025
Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.
Time To Drain The Swamp With The MERIT Act!
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You cannot drain the swamp, unless you can fire the swamp. That is why, Representatives Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) and Anna Paulina Luna’s (R-Fla.) MERIT Act is so important. It allows an expedited process for firing incompetent, recalcitrant or lazy federal employees. The current system rewards the worse employees in the federal government and punishes the best and even the average. But the MERIT Act would change that. Because it is currently next to impossible to fire a federal civil service employee managers have to choose when confronted by a bad employee on whether to endure an often multi-year long process of failed Performance Improvement Plans, endless Human Resources meetings and other remediations in order to fire someone. The natural result is that managers often choose to just isolate the bad employees, not giving them anything to do and pay them anyway. The MERIT Act fits perfectly in this new world where government systems are being evaluated to determine the best ways to create efficiencies and maximize taxpayer value. |
Americans Fight Back Against “Highly Skilled” Foreign Labor and Chain Migration – Including Democrats
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As the battle over immigration reform rages on, the American people are largely unified in their preferences for weaning businesses off of cheap foreign labor and training American workers to fill white and blue-collar roles alike. Asked in a recent Rasmussen poll whether Congress should increase the number of “highly skilled” foreign workers to fill white-collar jobs, Americans responded with a resounding, “no”. The Rasmussen poll finds a strong rejection of programs such as the H-1B visa program which allows big business to bypass American workers and hire foreign workers to fill skilled roles. By thirty-four points – 60 percent to 26 percent – Americans say the U.S. already has enough skilled people to train and recruit for these jobs and doesn’t need to rely on foreign labor. Again, only 26 percent of Americans say the U.S. needs more foreign workers to fill roles. Democrats agree that the U.S. already has enough talented people to fill most white-collar roles by ten points – 47 percent to 37 percent. Non-partisans agree by a full 41 points – 63 percent to 22 percent. As a whole, the American people appear to be rejecting the vast immigration experiment of the past six decades, which sought to reduce the criminality of illegal immigration as well as feed big business with a steady stream of cheap foreign labor. |
The Propaganda Blitz Continues For More Spending
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In an article in Bridge Michigan published on January 1 of this year A Great Lakes ‘Pompeii’? Lake Huron’s depths hold secrets of human history | Bridge Michigan, the story reported on some exciting archeological finds at the bottom of Lake Huron. Not just the actual discoveries were reported but also the knowledge gained on how to conduct such work at the bottom of a very deep body of water was hailed. As a history buff, I was impressed by the finds and more so by the techniques employed. But then came the kicker, the real reason for the article. You see, the three-year grant from the Federal Government was about to end. If it does, the work and the startling finds will end with it. How sad, how tragic. Of course, the writer does not find the inability of families to pay for food all that tragic. And, there is, naturally, no connection between spending money we as a country do not have and the persistence of inflation; a malady that is solely the fault of government overspending. No, we are supposed to be sad about the end of this clearly great project and ignore the impact of the wasteful federal government. This is the bait and switch. We are baited by things we want or enjoy – in this case some truly historic archeology. But what we get – the switch – is an inflationary cycle from too much spending that is crushing families and small businesses everywhere. |
Time To Drain The Swamp With The MERIT Act!
By Rick Manning
You cannot drain the swamp, unless you can fire the swamp. That is why, Representatives Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) and Anna Paulina Luna’s (R-Fla.) MERIT Act is so important.
No, it isn’t a wholesale elimination of civil service protections against political firings, in fact it is a fairly tame change in the federal government employment law. At its core, all it does is allow an expedited process for firing incompetent, recalcitrant or lazy federal employees.
The current system rewards the worse employees in the federal government and punishes the best and even the average. But the MERIT Act would change that.
According to the bill’s summary, “The MERIT Act repeals the Chapter 43 special process for acting against poor performers and bad actors, which is unnecessarily time-consuming, and streamlines the Chapter 75 process for removal or suspension of employees and supervisors. The MERIT Act also permits agencies to remove a senior executive from the civil service for performance reasons, rather than merely demoting the individual to a non-Senior Executive Service (SES) position.”
Because it is currently next to impossible to fire a federal civil service employee managers have to choose when confronted by a bad employee on whether to endure an often multi-year long process of failed Performance Improvement Plans, endless Human Resources meetings and other remediations in order to fire someone.
The natural result is that managers often choose to just isolate the bad employees, not giving them anything to do and pay them anyway. It simply isn’t worth it to risk failing to meet your performance expectations because you are spending so much time and energy on an employee who has zero interest in doing their job.
The net result is other team members end up doing their own job and part of someone else’s. And the only people who benefit are the government employee union lawyers who keep their jobs, human resources staff that deals with these problems as their job and the person who is effectively stealing money from the U.S. taxpayer.
Creating an expedited system to fire the worse employees simply makes sense.
The MERIT Act fits perfectly in this new world where government systems are being evaluated to determine the best ways to create efficiencies and maximize taxpayer value.
Representatives Loudermilk and Luna are doing the right thing by being the point of this spear, and the American people look forward to the MERIT Act’s reintroduction and it will be up to the new Congress to make this common sense reform happen.
Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government.
To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2025/01/time-to-drain-the-swamp-with-the-merit-act/
Americans Fight Back Against “Highly Skilled” Foreign Labor and Chain Migration – Including Democrats
By Manzanita Miller
As the battle over immigration reform rages on, the American people are largely unified in their preferences for weaning businesses off of cheap foreign labor and training American workers to fill white and blue-collar roles alike.
Asked in a recent Rasmussen poll whether Congress should increase the number of “highly skilled” foreign workers to fill white-collar jobs, Americans responded with a resounding, “no”.
The Rasmussen poll finds a strong rejection of programs such as the H-1B visa program which allows big business to bypass American workers and hire foreign workers to fill skilled roles.
By thirty-four points – 60 percent to 26 percent – Americans say the U.S. already has enough skilled people to train and recruit for these jobs and doesn’t need to rely on foreign labor. Again, only 26 percent of Americans say the U.S. needs more foreign workers to fill roles.
Democrats agree that the U.S. already has enough talented people to fill most white-collar roles by ten points – 47 percent to 37 percent. Non-partisans agree by a full 41 points – 63 percent to 22 percent.
When asked about foreign-labor enthusiasts’ loudest argument – that companies are unable to find Americans to take jobs in construction, manufacturing, hospitality and other areas – Americans hit back by saying companies need to raise their pay to attract Americans to do those jobs.
The “businesses should raise their pay to attract Americans” argument against importing cheap foreign labor is favored by a broad coalition of Americans. Democrats agree with the raise-wages argument by 14 points – 49 percent to 35 percent – and non-partisans agree by 43 points.
In fact, the only group who believes business should be allowed to skirt around paying Americans higher wages and instead rely on cheap foreign labor is liberals. Liberals say by a narrow five points – 44 percent to 39 percent – it is better for Congress to keep feeding the economy with cheap foreign labor rather than incentivize businesses to pay Americans higher wages, a somewhat absurd inversion of priorities.
What about the argument that businesses will simply pass higher prices on to consumers if they are forced to pay substantial wages to workers instead of relying on cheap foreign labor?
Americans say by a resounding 35 points – 59 percent to 24 percent – that even if businesses pass higher prices on to consumers it is worth it if they are training and compensating Americans instead of relying on cheap foreign labor. While the country may feel some initial sticker-shock, Americans are largely willing to see prices rise temporarily in order to ensure more of our country is employed and fairly compensated.
As a whole, the American people appear to be rejecting the vast immigration experiment of the past six decades, which sought to reduce the criminality of illegal immigration as well as feed big business with a steady stream of cheap foreign labor.
Americans say by 40 points – 62 percent to 28 percent – that in terms of overall quality of life the U.S. would be better off either reducing or halting all immigration, at least for a period. Even Democrats agree by three points – 45 percent to 42 percent – that overall quality of life would improve with a reduction or complete pause to immigration driven population growth.
Manzanita Miller is the senior political analyst at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.
To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2025/01/americans-fight-back-against-highly-skilled-foreign-labor-and-chain-migration-including-democrats/
The Propaganda Blitz Continues For More Spending
By Bill Wilson
Now that Donald Trump has officially been elected, the abject terror of the deep state and the horde of bureaucrats is becoming palpable. The fear of actual spending cuts, an end to the stupidity and absurdity of the “debt limit” kabuki theater, and the possible end to the constant flow of money to the parasite class has put Washington, D.C. into a near psychotic free-fall.
It can be certain that the establishment – the so-called “Senior Executive Service” bureaucrats, the hundreds of thousands of ‘non-profit” NGOs and the academic parrots who mouth excuses and make up phony justifications – will fight to the last drop of our blood to preserve their gorging feast on the American taxpayers. Like Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the deep state cannot resist the demand for more blood.
Recently an example of how they hope to build a defensive wall against MAGA advocates in Congress and the tens of millions of hard-working citizens around the county came to light. Let’s call it the ultimate game of Bait and Switch.
In an article in Bridge Michigan published on January 1 of this year A Great Lakes ‘Pompeii’? Lake Huron’s depths hold secrets of human history | Bridge Michigan, the story reported on some exciting archeological finds at the bottom of Lake Huron. Not just the actual discoveries were reported but also the knowledge gained on how to conduct such work at the bottom of a very deep body of water was hailed. As a history buff, I was impressed by the finds and more so by the techniques employed.
But then came the kicker, the real reason for the article. You see, the three-year grant from the Federal Government was about to end. If it does, the work and the startling finds will end with it. How sad, how tragic.
Of course, the writer does not find the inability of families to pay for food all that tragic. And, there is, naturally, no connection between spending money we as a country do not have and the persistence of inflation; a malady that is solely the fault of government overspending. No, we are supposed to be sad about the end of this clearly great project and ignore the impact of the wasteful federal government.
This is the bait and switch. We are baited by things we want or enjoy – in this case some truly historic archeology. But what we get – the switch – is an inflationary cycle that is crushing families and small businesses everywhere. Do not believe for one second the outright lies of Jerome Powell or Biden. Inflation has not been tamed and is, in fact, rearing its head in a more destructive and dangerous manner. As Daivd Stockman has pointed out, the type of lull we now find ourselves in is exactly the same pattern witnessed in the 1970s.
If people like George Soros have billions of dollars to spend on trying to corrupt and pervert our nation’s law and order system and politics, why not fund something worthwhile like the Lake Huron project. We know the answer of course. The leftist elite hate America and would rather spend their money on dangerous schemes that neither help average people nor enhance general knowledge.
We should all prepare ourselves for the onslaught of similar stories coming our way. There will be a thousand reasons forced on us to justify the continuation of the spending spree. And all of them, worthy or not, will not justify the harsh reality of runaway inflation.
America has no other choice – either spending is cut to the actual bone and continue that way for an extended period of time, or the nation falls into hyper-inflation and we are destroyed. There is no third choice.
Bill Wilson is the former president of Americans for Limited Government.
To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2025/01/the-propaganda-blitz-continues-for-more-spending/