Sweetwater Reporter (Sweetwater, Tex.), Vol. 114, No. 81, Ed. 1 Friday, April 20, 2012 Page: 4 of 12
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Viewpoints
Page 4 ■ Friday, April 20, 2012
Sweetwater Reporter
DEDICATED TO PROUDLY DELIVERING LOCAL NEWS SINCE 1881
1—x Sweetwater i
Reporter
P.O. Box 750/112 W. Third
Sweetwater, Texas 79556
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TA
MEMBER
2010
TEXAS PRESS
ASSOCIATION
Ron Midkiff
Publisher
Gloria Rudel
ad director
TaOana Rodriguez
managing editor
Pablo Rodriguez
composing
Rleu Reyes
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EDITORIAL POLICY
The editorial section of the newspaper is a forum for
expression of a variety of viewpoints. All articles except
those labeled "Editorials" reflect the opinions of the writ-
ers and not those of the Sweetwater Reporter.
Hamilton
GUEST COLUMN
Tupac brought back
to life via hologram
HOLLYWOOD—God bless America, and how's
everybody?
Titanic Memorial Cruises held services Sunday at
the spot where the original Titanic hit the iceberg. It
was the first time a captain ever ordered that women
and children be first on the lifeboats. It also marked
the moment the female impersonator was invented.
Georgia enacted a law Monday
requiring welfare recipients to pass
a drug test to get benefits. Welfare
T ft recipients are converting their EBT
cards to cash to buy drugs. The only
jv time the money goes faster from
the taxpayer to the drug dealer is in
I- < JK Medicare Part D.
Tupac Shakur was brought back to
life onstage via hologram technol-
flfOIIS Qgy Friday. The crowd went wild
over how well it performed. Once
superstars grasp how replaceable
hologram technology makes them
they might poison their kids in pre-
emptive self-defense.
The Court of Appeals upheld Arizona's photo-ID
voting law but ruled you don't need proof of citizen-
ship. You aren't allowed to vote if you campaign
near the polling place. Any photo-ID of you sitting
on a burro could be considered campaigning for the
incumbent.
Newt Gingrich stopped by the St. Louis Zoo Sunday
where he was bitten on the finger by a penguin when
he reached down to pick it up. The guard testified he
heard Newt's stomach growling when he walked in.
All charges against the penguin have been dropped.
John Edwards got his hair cut at a Raleigh
SuperCuts on Tuesday. He once got a four hun-
dred dollar haircut in a famous Beverly Hills salon.
Normally they charge you two hundred, but if you
dress nicely and mispronounce Wilshire they charge
you four hundred.
The Boston Marathon was run in such high heat
Sunday that many runners dropped out before it
started. One runner fainted in the street a mile from
the finish line. Later a Kenyan fainted at the same
spot and beat his time to the ground by two-fifths of
a second.
Congress held hearings on a GSA Las Vegas meet-
ing two years ago. They lavished tax dollars on
clowns and mind readers. The clowns were there to
distract the pit bosses from the mind readers who
were helping the GSA executives count cards at the
blackjack tables.
President Obama tried to blame Big Oil for high
gas prices Tuesday. Until Election Day oil compa-
nies should dye their oil green and put solar panels
on their roofs. It's like fooling the Germans into
thinking we're going to invade at Calais instead of
Normandy.
President Obama gave a speech at Hooker's Point
at the Port of Tampa Friday before he flew to
Colombia. The next day the Secret Service prostitute
scandal exploded. When the agents heard the presi-
dent was at Hooker's Point, they instinctively rushed
to his side.
Congress scheduled hearings into the Secret Service
agent's wild party in Cartagena last week. He refused
to pay a hooker forty-seven bucks he owed her. The
Obama administration picked an odd time to stop
spending money and start reducing the deficit.
Senator Susan Collins said Secret Service agents
hired twenty hookers for their bash in Colombia.
Some people love exercise, some love work, some
love to pray, some love to engage in anonymous sex.
If everybody had the same taste, we'd all be killed in
the rush.
Mitt Romney told Diane Sawyer in an ABC News
interview Monday that he'd accept Lome Michaels'
invitation to appear on Saturday Night Live as long
as the sketch is funny. There are no guarantees.
Since John Belushi died, it's been a crapshoot every
week.
Argus Hamilton is the host comedian at The
Comedy Store in Hollywood and entertains groups
and organizations around the country. E-mail him
at Argus@ArgusHamilton.com.
GUEST COLUMN
The car the Right Wing can t kill
Imagine that. Former
Republican President
George H.W. Bush recent-
ly bought his son
Neil a Chevrolet
Volt as a birthday
present. This is the
car that all right-
thinking right-
wingers demand
we hate. In their
political prism,
the Volt has every-
thing going against
it: It's beloved by
environmental-
ists for getting 6i
miles to the gal-
lon. It's assembled
by unionized workers at
General Motors' Detroit-
Hamtramck plant. It
enjoys government subsi-
dies intended to encour-
age the production of
fuel-efficient cars (started
actually by H.W.'s old-
est son, former President
George W. Bush).
To many, this resembles
progress. But to "conser-
vatives" wanting govern-
ment-bailed-out Detroit to
go down in flames, espe-
cially if the United Auto
Workers union goes with
it, this plug-in hybrid is
the car that has to die.
Lo and behold, U.S. car
sales were hot last month,
with General Motors sell-
ing over 100,000 vehicles
that get at least 30 miles
to a gallon. And sales of
GUEST COLUMN
Froma
Harrop
its Chevy Volt more than
doubled from the month
before.
The irony is that
GM has temporar-
ily stopped pro-
duction of the Volt
following earlier
weak sales. And
here's why the
Volt wasn't flying
out of the lots: The
right-wing media
had launched an
outrageous smear
campaign against
it. As former GM
executive Bob Lutz
sarcastically put it,
the Volt had become "the
poster child for President
Obama's socialist med-
dling in the free automo-
tive market."
Lutz responded with
special anger to a recent
Bill O'Reilly Fox News
show in which the host
condemned the Volt as
"an unmitigated disas-
ter." Joshing over the
disappointing Volt sales,
O'Reilly's guest Lou Dobbs
said, "It doesn't work."
Also, "It catches fire."
None of this happens
to be true. The European-
market Volt worked well
enough to be named the
European Car of the Year.
The "catching fire" claim
is pure fiction, Lutz said,
based on battery tests
"under extremely destruc-
tive experimental condi-
tions." Two of the three
batteries involved weren't
even in a car. No Volt
has ever caught fire in an
accident on a public road,
he added, while between
2003 and 2007, some
278,000 gasoline-pow-
ered cars did.
Sadly, Republican presi-
dential candidate Mitt
Romney has lowered him-
self by catering to feverish
right-wing fantasies. He
softened the rhetoric a bit
by advancing the myth that
an already weak General
Motors and Chrysler could
have survived in bank-
ruptcy reorganization
without government help.
Most economists deemed
that scenario impossible
at a time of economic
meltdown, when nearly
all lending had stopped.
And who would buy a car
from a bankrupt company
not backed by the govern-
ment?
Judging from past writ-
ings on energy policy,
Romney probably sub-
scribes to a Bush-like
belief that government
has a role in helping
Americans reduce their oil
consumption. But he did
join the anti-Volt pile-on
this week. Using past tense
he commented, "I'm not
sure America was ready
for the Chevy Volt." Then
he wished it well.
What weird brand of
politics revels at the pros-
pect of plowing under a
U.S. product so innova-
tive that the Chinese are
demanding its engineer-
ing secrets? It's a politics
that ignores the huge sub-
sidies that other govern-
ments, including China's,
are pouring into energy
technology. It's a politics
that seems to blindly hate
organized labor — even
after the autoworkers had
accepted enormous cuts in
their numbers and com-
pensation to keep the car
companies afloat. It's a
politics that went goofy
over Chrysler's Super Bowl
adin which Clint Eastwood
announced, "It's halftime
in America." Without evi-
dence, some heard a thin-
ly veiled call for a second
Obama administration.
Exactly whose side are
these people on? If these
self-styled patriots want to
keep waving the flag, fine.
But it should be a white
flag, not the American
one.
To find out more about
Froma Harrop, and
read features by other
Q'eators Syndicate writ-
ers and cartoonists, visit
the Creators Syndicate
web page at www.cre-
ators.com.
An opportunity to strengthen
the Texas budget process
In less than a year,
newly-elected members
of the 83rd Legislature
will take their seats and
begin crafting the bud-
get for the next biennium .
This two-year state bud-
get is a particu-
larly important
piece of legisla-
tion; one that can
chart the course
for our state for
many years, even
decades, to come.
By most
accounts, we'll
have a larger pot
of money on hand,
as job creation and
sales tax receipts
have been consis-
tently up - and up sig-
nificantly - for two years
straight.
Some will interpret
higher sales tax receipts
as a great excuse for the
state to start a tax-dollar
spending spree. But in
reality there is no such
thing as "extra" money,
when it's coming out of
the pockets of Texas tax-
payers.
After surviving a nation-
al recession and watching
excessive spending w rack
up trillions in new debt
under President Obama,
Texans have a new appre-
ciation of the importance
of wisely managing their
financial resources.
The upcoming Texas
budget process is an
opportunity for wisdom
and common sense, and
to commit to policies
that will keep Texas the
top job-producer in the
nation.
Given the increasing
pressure on our budget,
in particular with respect
to Medicaid, we must
remain committed to the
sound conservative val-
ues that have made Texas
the prosperous state it
is today, and take steps
to advance us even fur-
ther. These are principles
Texans live under every
day and these are the
principles Texans expect
their government to gov-
ern by.
That's why I've pro-
posed the Texas Budget
Compact, a collection of
five common-sense prin-
ciples that should guide
the direction of our leg-
islature in the upcoming
session and sessions to
come.
I believe anyone serving
i
Gov. Rick
Perry
in the Texas Legislature,
or aspiring to serve,
should commit to:
1.)Practice truth in bud-
geting;
2.)Support a stricter
Constitutional limit on
the growth of
spending;
3-)Oppose any
new or higher
taxes;
4-)Preserve a
strong Rainy Day
Fund; and
5-)Cut unneces-
sary and duplica-
tive government
programs and
agencies.
Let's take a look
at these, one at a
time.
Truth in budgeting
means ending the practic-
es of budgetaiy tricks and
maneuvers, like deferrals
and lOUs. We need to
use fees and dedicated
accounts for the purposes
they're collected, and if
fees are not being used
for the intended purpose
then we need to stop col-
lecting them. Texans have
to make tough decisions
every day and govern-
ment should, too.
Government shouldn't
grow any faster than our
population does. That's
why we need to replace
the current Constitutional
limit on spending growth
- which is based on
the growth of personal
income - with a stronger
cap based on the rate of
inflation and Texas popu-
lation growth.
Small businesses are the
engine of our economy,
so keeping small business
taxes low and fair is a
critical part of our state's
economic success. So in
2013. we must make the
small business tax exemp-
tion permanent.
Over the past two leg-
islative sessions, our leg-
islators have successfully
fought to exempt busi-
nesses with less than $1
million in revenue from
the state margins tax,
meaning these business
owners have more money
in their pocket to hire new
workers or buy new equip-
ment. Let's give them cer-
tainty on this issue this
session and beyond.
Next, we need to pre-
serve a strong Rainy Day
Fund, which is an asset
critical to our ability to
respond to unforeseen
circumstances and emer-
gencies, whether financial
or natural in origin, and
also helps us secure a very
favorable bond rating.
Any money spent out
of the Rainy Day Fund
should be used exclu-
sively for one-time-only
items, never for ongoing
expenses.
Lastly, we need to
reexamine government
and remove any and all
unnecessary programs
and agencies, especially
those performing similar,
or even identical, func-
tions performed else-
where.
While we've made great
strides in streamlin-
ing government over the
years, much work remains
to be done.
As stewards of the econ-
omy, we always have to
look to cut expenses first
before we think about
spending any additional
dollars.
We also all have to
remember that the cost
of Medicaid - the fed-
eral-state program pay-
ing for health care for
low-income citizens - is
a ticking time bomb, and
is primed to do massive
damage to our budget and
our ability to fund public
schools, criminal justice
and other priorities in the
short and long terms.
Expansion of Medicaid
under the Obama
Administration will sig-
nificantly increase state
spending and reduce
flexibility, driving fixed
costs higher. If the
Supreme Court upholds
Obamacare, that required
state spending will accel-
erate even more dramati-
cally. Under current pro-
jections, Obamacare will
cost the state $27 billion
over 10 years starting in
2014.
It's time for Medicaid
money to be distributed
to states in block grants,
so states have the funds
and flexibility necessary
to deal with the challeng-
es of their unique popu-
lations. We also need to
work harder at targeting
and preventing Medicaid
fraud, because stopping
dollars from going out is
a lot more efficient than
trying to get the money
back after the fact.
Together, the five com-
mon-sense conservative
budget principles I've out-
lined will result in a stron-
ger, more prosperous
Texas, better prepared to
deal with the unexpected
and better positioned to
care for our own.
The upcoming state
legislative session reflects
a golden opportunity to
demonstrate, yet again,
the right way to build a
balanced budget, run a
growing state economy,
and encourage job cre-
ation and prosperity for
our citizens: The Texas
Way.
Rick Perry is the
Governor of Texas.
Comments about this col-
umn may be e-mailed to
editor @sweetwaterre-
porter.com.
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Sweetwater Reporter (Sweetwater, Tex.), Vol. 114, No. 81, Ed. 1 Friday, April 20, 2012, newspaper, April 20, 2012; Sweetwater, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth229745/m1/4/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Sweetwater/Nolan County City-County Library.