Empowering Families, Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs

Empower Small Business Owners and Reduce Regulatory Burdens:
• Require congressional review and approval of any government regulations that have a significant impact on the economy or burden small businesses.
• Audit existing and pending regulations to identify and address those that hinder economic growth.

Fix the Tax Code to Help Job Creators:
• Increase American competitiveness to spur investment and create more American jobs by streamlining the tax code and lowering the tax rate for businesses and individuals including small business owners to no more than 25%.
• Reform the tax code to allow American businesses to bring back their overseas profits without having to pay a tax penalty so they can invest in our economy and create American jobs.

Increase Competitiveness for American Manufacturers:
• Pass the three pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea to create up to 250,000 jobs.
• Continue to open new markets to American made products.

Encourage Entrepreneurship and Growth:
• Modernize our patent system to protect our nation’s innovators, discourage frivolous lawsuits, and expedite patent reviews.
• Re-Authorize and improve federal programs and approval processes to streamline development of new products.
• Remove barriers to building a first class workforce so that the United States can compete in the global marketplace and lead the way in technological development and growth.

Maximize Domestic Energy Production to Ensure an Energy Policy for the 21st Century:
• Promote lower energy prices through increased domestic production.
• Encourage all forms of energy production.

Pay Down America’s Unsustainable Debt Burden and Start Living Within our Means:
• Build upon the House Republicans’ Budget by enacting significant spending cuts.

Evangelicals and the Gay Moral Revolution

http://www.illinoisfamily.org/news/contentview.asp?c=35348

7/14/2011 3:50:00 PM
By R. Albert Mohler Jr. - Wall Street Journal

The Christian church has faced no shortage of challenges in its 2,000-year history. But now it's facing a challenge that is shaking its foundations: homosexuality.

To many onlookers, this seems strange or even tragic. Why can't Christians just join the revolution?

And make no mistake, it is a moral revolution. As philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah of Princeton University demonstrated in his recent book, "The Honor Code," moral revolutions generally happen over a long period of time. But this is hardly the case with the shift we've witnessed on the question of homosexuality.

In less than a single generation, homosexuality has gone from something almost universally understood to be sinful, to something now declared to be the moral equivalent of heterosexuality-and deserving of both legal protection and public encouragement. Theo Hobson, a British theologian, has argued that this is not just the waning of a taboo. Instead, it is a moral inversion that has left those holding the old morality now accused of nothing less than "moral deficiency."

The liberal churches and denominations have an easy way out of this predicament. They simply accommodate themselves to the new moral reality. By now the pattern is clear: These churches debate the issue, with conservatives arguing to retain the older morality and liberals arguing that the church must adapt to the new one. Eventually, the liberals win and the conservatives lose. Next, the denomination ordains openly gay candidates or decides to bless same-sex unions.

This is a route that evangelical Christians committed to the full authority of the Bible cannot take. Since we believe that the Bible is God's revealed word, we cannot accommodate ourselves to this new morality. We cannot pretend as if we do not know that the Bible clearly teaches that all homosexual acts are sinful, as is all human sexual behavior outside the covenant of marriage. We believe that God has revealed a pattern for human sexuality that not only points the way to holiness, but to true happiness.

Thus we cannot accept the seductive arguments that the liberal churches so readily adopt. The fact that same-sex marriage is a now a legal reality in several states means that we must further stipulate that we are bound by scripture to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman-and nothing else.

We do so knowing that most Americans once shared the same moral assumptions, but that a new world is coming fast. We do not have to read the polls and surveys; all we need to do is to talk to our neighbors or listen to the cultural chatter.

In this most awkward cultural predicament, evangelicals must be excruciatingly clear that we do not speak about the sinfulness of homosexuality as if we have no sin. As a matter of fact, it is precisely because we have come to know ourselves as sinners and of our need for a savior that we have come to faith in Jesus Christ. Our greatest fear is not that homosexuality will be normalized and accepted, but that homosexuals will not come to know of their own need for Christ and the forgiveness of their sins.

This is not a concern that is easily expressed in sound bites. But it is what we truly believe.

It is now abundantly clear that evangelicals have failed in so many ways to meet this challenge. We have often spoken about homosexuality in ways that are crude and simplistic. We have failed to take account of how tenaciously sexuality comes to define us as human beings. We have failed to see the challenge of homosexuality as a Gospel issue. We are the ones, after all, who are supposed to know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only remedy for sin, starting with our own.

We have demonstrated our own form of homophobia-not in the way that activists have used that word, but in the sense that we have been afraid to face this issue where it is most difficult . . . face to face.

My hope is that evangelicals are ready now to take on this challenge in a new and more faithful way. We really have no choice, for we are talking about our own brothers and sisters, our own friends and neighbors, or maybe the young person in the next pew.

There is no escaping the fact that we are living in the midst of a moral revolution. And yet, it is not the world around us that is being tested, so much as the believing church. We are about to find out just how much we believe the Gospel we so eagerly preach.

Rev. Mohler is the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY.

THE BEST MEMORY SYSTEM

Forget the kindness that you do,

As soon as you have done it;

Forget the praise that falls on you,

The moment you have won it.

Forget the slander that you hear,

Before you can repeat it;

Forget each slight, each spite, each sneer,

Wherever you may meet it.

Remember every kindness done,

To you, whate'er its measure;

Remember praise by others won.

And pass it on with pleasure.

Remember every promise made,

And keep it to the letter;

Remember those who lend you aid,

And be a grateful debtor.

Remember all the happiness

That comes your way in living;

Forget each worry and distress,

Be hopeful and forgiving.

Remember good, remember truth,

Remember heaven's above you.

And you will find through age and youth

True joy and hearts to love you.

Anon

April 2011

Letter to the Editor          PARTNERSHIPS FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE

Chicken and Gasoline

It all began in Corbin, Kentucky in the midst of the Great Depression.  Harlan Sanders opened a restaurant in the small front room of a gas station he operated.  He named it, "Sanders Court and Cafe."  By 1940, Sanders expanded his restaurant to accommodate 142 people, introduced his "original recipe" and was given the honorary title of "Kentucky Colonel" by the governor.  The Colonel approved his first franchise located in Salt Lake City, Utah on a handshake and marketed his now "secret recipe" chicken to restaurant owners all across the country.  By 1960, Sanders had 190 Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise restaurants in the United States.  Sanders sold his interest in KFC for $2 million in 1964.  By 1969 Kentucky Fried Chicken was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.  KFC was eventually sold to RJ Reynolds, then to PepsiCo and finally spun off along with PepsiCo's Pizza Hut and Taco Bell eateries to Tricon Global Restaurants.  Today, more than a billion of the Colonel's "finger lick'n good" chicken dinners are served every year in over 80 countries.

Politicians and Executive Orders

In 1958, New York City Mayor Robert F. Wagner theorized the best way to ensure his own re-election was to garner the voting support of the rather large city workforce.  To accomplish this he signed into law by executive order the "Little Wagner Act" granting city employees the right to collectively bargain for wages and benefits.  His re-election bid was won handily.  The following year a revolution was triggered when Wisconsin Governor Gaylord Nelson signed the Municipal Employee Relations Act granting state wide public employees collective bargaining rights.  Not only was it the first state to grant such rights but also the first to grant teachers the right to unionize.  Encouraged by the accomplishment of Mayor Wagner and the expansion of government obligations in Wisconsin, politicians all across the country began securing collective bargaining rights for their public employees in an effort to capture future votes and guarantee continued re-election for themselves.  The tactic was so successful, it even attracted the attention of then President John F. Kennedy.  Climbing on the pro-public union bandwagon, Kennedy signed into law Executive Order Number 10988 granting collective bargaining rights to all federal employees.  The year was 1962.

Follow the Money

Over the years, union support for Democrat political candidates has grown exponentially along with their legislative influence and power.  In 2010, America's top 20 labor unions gave over $68 million in campaign contributions for candidates on the federal level.  Ninety-four percent of that money went to Democrats, 4% to Republicans.  On the state and local level, 15 labor unions gave at least $1 million to Democrat candidates during the 2008 and 2010 campaigns.  Combined donations exceed $206 million.  Ninety-one percent of that money was given to Democrats.

The Truth Will Set Us Free

In July of 2009, general counsel of the mighty National Education Association, Robert Chanin, candidly characterized the scope of the union when he said:  "Despite what some among us would like to believe, [the NEA is effective] not because of our creative ideas.  It is not because of the merit of our positions.  It is not because we care about children and it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child.  NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power.  And we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year,"  There it is folks. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  How about you?  Thanks for being honest, Bob.  At least we know where you stand.

From Humble Beginnings

No one could have predicted combining fried chicken with a gas station would lead to the birth of a multi-million dollar conglomerate, but many predicted the melding of politicians with the ability to unilaterally legislate and tax would be disastrous for our nation.  For the good of our country, the partnership of America and the Constitution must be rekindled.  In the words of Patrick Henry, "The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government."   Amen Mr. Henry, Amen.

Sue DeLorme

While surfing the cable channels one day, I stumbled upon a program chronicling the lives of the morbidly obese.  One story revolved around the life of a nineteen- year-old  who weighed over 500 pounds.  His mother attended to his every need, including disposal of his bodily waste and keeping his many skin flaps and folds clean. A large part of her day was spent providing him with food.  Whatever he wanted she either freshly prepared in the kitchen or went to the drive-thru to pick up.  After observing the mother's routine, it wasn't difficult to imagine how this young man ended up so grossly overweight.   Doctors advised if he did not lose the extra pounds, he would die.  The story followed the family as the young man was hospitalized and prepared for fat removal surgery and several weeks thereafter, gastric by-pass surgery. The loving but destructive relationship between parent and child was obvious to hospital personnel as the mother undermined his diet by bringing in extra food and continually chastising his physical therapists for making him walk too much.  The show ended questioning the level of weight-loss and long term survival this nineteen-year-old would attain, given his mother's constant negative interference.  No doubt she loves him, but her enabling is killing him.  Loving sometimes means saying "yes,"  but more often, it means saying "no."

A Campaign Promise Kept

Candidate Pat Quinn made it clear he was in favor of and would support raising taxes in Illinois.  Governor Pat Quinn not only followed through with his promise, but also raised taxes more than he initially said he would!  Those, who by their votes put this man and others like him into office, are the enablers.  Our state government though bloated, overweight and steering us onto a path toward collective ruin, continues to want more.  "Feed me!" demands Governor Quinn and the enablers spring into action.  Their misguided sense of compassion is forcing us all into a relationship of  mutual dependence.  They need our money so they can stay in power.  We need for them to give it back to us so we can stay alive.  This relationship is not merely unhealthy, it is sick.  And it needs to change.

Feeding The Beast

A look at the  Citizens Against Government Waste 2010 Piglet Book provides insight into Illinois' spending habits.  Health and Human Services was given the largest spending appropriation totaling $24.7 billion.  Included in this figure are payments for things like individual ethnic health service organizations totaling $8,474,706 and disease awareness and research programs totaling $12,470,953. The Department of Human Services spent $17,691,700 for "employability development." Obviously, all of that money didn't develop very much as unemployment continues to hover close to 10%.  Education was given the second largest spending appropriation for 2010 totaling $14.5 billion.  A significant chunk of this cash went to the University of Illinois, SIU and Northern Illinois University for personal services and related other operations to the tune of $1,084.417,811 collectively.  In addition, money was given to employees for continuing education tuition and fees totaling $1,049,639, with a significant amount of those dollars being spent in out of state institutions in Kentucky, Iowa, Colorado, Michigan and Indiana.  With this kind of spending going on, it is not surprising that in a January 8th article in the Wall Street Journal, Stephen Moore reported Illinois has a budget deficit of $15 billion and an unfunded pension liability of  $80 billion. Currently, there are 536 retirees collecting pensions in excess of $100,000 each annually.  They alone are costing Illinois taxpayers $68.2 million.  And I have only scratched the surface.

Facing Reality

Illinois taxpayers are at the breaking point.  A combined state and average local sales tax rate of 8.22%, 8th highest in the nation, a 39-cent-per-gallon gas tax, 6th highest in the nation and a corporate income tax rate of 9.5%, the 4th highest in the nation makes Illinois a very unattractive home for current or potential businesses.  As owners close or move their operations to other states, the pool of taxpayers remaining will dwindle, and their financial burden will increase.  Giving more money to those who have shown they cannot control their spending, is akin to giving more food to those who cannot control their eating.  Quinn's tax increases must be repealed.  It will cause pain, but continuing to feed this obese bureaucracy will do more than cause pain.  It will destroy Illinois.

Sue DeLorme

From the Belleville News Democrat - Eye on Government

St Clair County Employee Wages in 2010

METRO EAST PACHYDERM CLUB – A GOOD 2010 YEAR

Thanks to the very capable leadership of Pachyderm Club President Robert Lyons and a great Board of Directors the Club had a very nice year for 2010. We had 78 speakers/programs which included almost all of the state and local candidates for election in November, and some super educational programs about our local County government agencies. We learned about all levels of the Education process from teacher to Regional Superintendent, from private to public schools, and about how our tax dollars are spent.

Metro East Pachyderms played a large part in supporting our County Republican Party by helping with the Shriner Parade, staffing the County Fair Booth and helping with election activities such as putting up signs, going door-to-door and working the phone centers. Several members also helped train precinct committeemen and election judges. The Club has many members in elective office, such as Precinct Committeemen, Mayor, Aldermen, and County Board Representatives.

Pachyderm Club membership increased to 84 for the year with an average visitor attendance at meetings of about ten visitors. Most of this increase was thanks to our Club Secretary Mary Thurman who never let any visitor get past her without a handout and an invitation to join. We also owe some thanks to several members who brought new members.

An inherent goal of the Pachyderm organization is to support the local Republican Party. The St Clair County Republican Party has progressed greatly due primarily to the skilled leadership of the Chairman, Jon McLean. The substantial increase in Republican votes in our 200 precincts tells the story very well. New organization strategies implemented by Chairman McLean created an environment of enthusiasm for county Republicans and the Vote got out this year.

We are all looking forward to an even more productive and fun year for 2011. We should be ready for the next election year with even more shared effort and input.

Richard Davis
President

Today, while watching Stuart Varney filling in for Neil Cavuto, my wife and I overheard Virginia Rep Connelly (D) tell Stuart (when Stuart referred to the "Democrat Party"), "...we prefer to be called the Democratic Party, rather than Democrat Party. We have talked for years about how the media and about everyone else has become accustomed to using the adjective "democratic", rather than the noun "Democrat". I suppose it sounds like they are democratic and the Republicans aren't. I think we should all start emphasing "Democrat Party" when we talk and email and text. How about that!!!

This Voter Guide is a compilation of information gathered from impartial candidate questionnaires, as well as voting records and publicly articulated positions. The guide is nonpartisan and it is not intended to endorse or oppose any candidate, whether explicitly or implicitly.

Click on attachment link to view document.

Attachments
 ifivgdistrict-12.pdf [232 KB] :: Voter Guide for 12th District