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Volume XXI Number 15 - August 15, 2022     RSS Feed   

A Periodic Newsletter for Committed Texas Conservatives

In This Issue

FBI Raid Former President Trump's Home, Are We Becoming A Police State Like Russia?

Crazy Spending In Washington And Harris County, TX Needs To Be Stopped

The Fading Away Of The Houston Chronicle

Texas Youth Summit

Michael Ramirez' Cartoon Of The Fortnight

Hope And Change Governed By An Ideology By Brian Ettinger, Contributing Editor

A Little Reality About The New Spending Bill By Bruce Bialosky, Contributing Editor

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Gary Polland
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Thoughts This Fortnight

FBI Raid Former President Trump's Home,
Are We Becoming A Police State Like Russia?

Last week, the Biden Justice Department ran a spurious search warrant claiming Trump was withholding secret documents. We have learned that President Trump had been cooperating with the National Archives and turned over 15 boxes in January. We learned that in June he had items relocated into a secure room at the government's request and that the discussions were ongoing.

That was the basis of the search. Of course, when Hillary Clinton had issues with secret documents on her server, no raid took place. Double standards of course, as there is one for Democrats and another for conservatives.

The warrant was released Friday and it adds to concerns as it allowed a plain view license to grab any item the FBI wants, this seems as partisan and unbalanced as the January 6 investigation.

These are scary times for our freedom. The uber-leftist Democratic party and its fellow travelers have weaponized its narrow hold on power. They are violating every political standard of our democracy since 1776.

TCR's Suggestion: Every citizen who cares about this mortal threat to America must vote. Vote as if your whole world depends on it. Your life, your family's life, your children's future and the future of our nation depends on you. Vote for pro-freedom, anti-crime candidates and throw the radical woke leftists out of office.

Crazy Spending In Washington And Harris County, TX Needs To Be Stopped

The split Senate voted via tiebreaker to pass the 755 page deceptively named "Inflation Reduction Act." Let's be clear, the description is an absolute lie. This bill is the "Build Back Better" spending bill Part Two, slightly downsized.

It won't fight inflation because the bill has a massive expansion of Federal government spending. The non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Budget reports around $385 billion in new spending on alternative energy and so-called climate change, $100 billion on healthcare, $80 billion to increase the IRS, doubling it in size (so it can conduct audits, among other things), and $2.2 billion for farmers who experienced discrimination!

Other lies, Biden says no one making under $400,000 will have their taxes raised. A review by the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation reveals "more than half of the tax increases (will fall) on Americans making less than $400,000 per year." Of course, the higher business taxes will be passed on to employees and consumers. Oh, and the effect on inflation will increase it as the so-called "promised" revenue to the Federal government won't show up and we end up with increased deficit spending.

TCR has one question, where was so called "moderate, pro-oil and gas" Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher? She voted yes, just like she does over 95% of the time, embracing the leftist Speaker Pelosi agenda.

And Harris County Democrat Commissioners are just like their Washington colleagues. Over the last three years plus - Lina Hidalgo, Adrian Garcia and Rodney Ellis have been on a spending tear unseen in the history of Harris County. The numbers on spending on non-core programs, new bureaucrats and consultants is breathtaking. They emptied the rainy-day fund, they have squeezed law enforcement, neglected jail capacity, attempted to raise taxes last year on top of the appraisal tax increase and while their colleagues in Dallas County voted to cut taxes, they instead want more money to spend now. They want $1.2 billion in a new bond issue for areas they have neglected due to their wasteful spending. We even still have unspent money from the 2015 bond issue.

What they don't tell you, the truth, is if we pass any bond issue, your taxes will go up to pay for it.

Based on their reckless track record, just say no.

In November, you have a chance to send two of them - Hidalgo and Garcia, packing. The alternatives - Alexandra del Moral Mealer (County Judge) and Jack Morman (Commissioner) are both for controlling spending and supporting law enforcement to reduce our out-of-control crime epidemic. There is nothing Hidalgo and Garcia have done to deserve re-election. Just ask yourself, is Harris County better off today than we were four years ago? Are you safer? Are your taxes lower? Has our infrastructure improved? The answer to all these questions is no.

The Fading Away Of The Houston Chronicle

For the now small percentage of Houstonians who subscribe to the Chronicle, this once decent newspaper has shrunk, has minimal local based reporting and at the same time has embraced the radical left on political issues and on the editorial page. All these actions are partially responsible for its decline into obscurity.

Average paid circulation tells the story. From October 2011 to March 2013 - average weekday circulation was 384,007, Sunday, 1,070,290. In 2021, incredibly the paper has declined to 67,858 (Alliance for Audited Media Circulations 4/9/21), trailing many cities with smaller populations.

Contrast these numbers with a respected newspaper in Tokyo, the Yomiuri Shimbun which last year had average circulation of its morning edition of 7,954,126.

The Chronicle's influence appears to be in decline along with its dismal circulation, probably because there is no balance in coverage or on the local editorial page.

Texas Youth Summit

"Empowering Youth to be Catalysts to Win the Culture War". Texas Youth Summit is FREE to ages 12-26 and adults 27+ can buy tickets/sponsorships to support the mission.

Michael Ramirez' Cartoon Of The Fortnight

Hope And Change Governed By An Ideology
By Brian Ettinger, Contributing Editor

Our country is being forced into radical change which has led to the current dangerous situation. When our current government leaders and bureaucrats govern based on a one-sided ideology, it leads to violence, economic instability causing situations like inflation, increase in criminal activity, attacks on our government institutions and certain industries, which will destroy our way of life. Radical changes in the name of climate change, defund the police, Critical Race Theory, and other woke policies will destroy our Judiciary, Education and Military institutions. Our country has not properly planned for this and the way they choose to implement it will cause more harm to the citizens and residents. Yes, we should look at these issues but with a smart plan, on energy by looking at nuclear power besides renewables (wind, solar), natural gas and clean coal as sources of energy power. Yes, electric vehicles, when economically feasible and have the battery capacity as well as look at fuel cells based on natural gas and clean diesel and jet fuels based on plant-based feedstock. Build more pipelines including coast to coast water pipelines to address droughts and wildfires. These all incorporated over a specific time period when the technology is feasible is what needs to be done. But this administration and their fanatics are causing more harm the way they are implementing these changes. They do not consider any other course of action other than their own views. It is a mob mentality. Their view or nothing at all.

Their policies promote criminal activity by accepting violence to stress their points of view, threaten government institutions, including our judiciary, based on decisions made against their point of view. They conduct protests in front of Supreme Court Justices' residences, including a threat to kill one justice. Current government officials in both Congress and Senate issue statements to harass and follow other government leaders who they do not agree with. Have a President state he wants to take a former President out behind the gym to fight him, a Senator Majority leader stated in front of the Supreme Court calling justices by name that their decisions will cause them harm, morons in Congress calling to harass other government leaders wherever they are and recently members of Congress protesting in front of the Supreme Court acting out a phony arrest when asked to leave by the Capitol Police. They were never arrested, booked nor charges brought against them. This acceptance of governing by an ideology started under President Obama and got worse over the years. It used to be blamed on a right-wing conspiracy and the acceptance of President Obama's election. The leftist fanatics almost caused a congressman to be killed at a baseball game. They never accepted President Trump's election, tried to impeach him twice and with the media left and extreme left-wing groups caused violent riots, looting, burning of businesses and a direct attack on our law enforcement officers. Now violence is the norm and cities are under siege letting out criminals with no bail laws and a defund the police movement. Crime increases and punishment is determined based on this ideology. A two-tier justice system instead of everyone equal under the law. Unless we cease this now and crack down hard on the criminals and anti-government fanatics, we will unleash a massive civil war in our country and our society will go like others before us (Greeks, Romans, Ottoman Empire, etc). Then China will be the new superpower. Right now, we are letting this happen.

What authority does the SEC legally have to institute regulations over publicly traded businesses to make business decisions on effects to climate change or gender inclusion? Financial institutions not lending capital to energy companies who deal in fossil fuels. Not insisting the Chinese companies listed on our stock exchange be governed by the same accounting rules as US companies are governed. This all needs to stop NOW or we will be doomed and never recover.


Brian Ettinger is a practicing attorney and contributing editor to TCR. He is a strong conservative who is concerned about America's future.

A Little Reality About The New Spending Bill
By Bruce Bialosky, Contributing Editor

The Democrats are masters of misnaming the intended purpose of bills they offer up to disguise what is really happening. It is indicative of how gullible they believe we are. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 will do nothing of the such. The main reason is that revenues will not be achieved to offset the expenditures.

This column has a ban on using definitive terminology. I do not use words like Never, Always or Every. That is because those terms are rarely applicable. However here is a truism. Whenever there is a projection of revenues that will be produced from a new tax increase, they never come to fruition. Here is another truism. Whenever there is a reduction of tax rates, they always produce increased governmental revenues. I know this because I have both studied and written about it for over 40 years.

This ridiculously named bill has a few major elements of the supposed increase in revenue. Please do not believe the eventual scoring by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The CBO is rarely correct because they do their scoring based on whatever Congress tells them to do. Just think about this: if Schumer named this bill which he did, do you think he gave the CBO realistic numbers on which to do a projection?

The first element of this bill's increased revenues has to do with money flowing in from audits because of new hires at the IRS. This is an agency that cannot even answer their phones. This is an agency that cannot even process their tax returns - the current estimate is they are twenty million behind, but who really knows? I believe they have finally processed all the 2020 tax returns. They are now digging into the unprocessed 2021 returns. This is an agency that is currently auditing a client of mine and they are having a problem because neither the computer of the auditor nor his supervisor can read a thumb drive I sent them. They cannot read any thumb drives.

Until they fix these problems, how are they going to hire a slew of new people to perform audits? And where are they getting all these new personnel to work at the most reviled agency in the country? We cannot get people to work at our restaurants, car repair shops or appliance stores. So how is the IRS going to get qualified personnel to work their audits? How many people graduating college with an accounting degree are going to work for the IRS when there is a shortage of personnel at accounting firms with a much more attractive environment and future. They may be able to hire people with sociology or geography degrees who can only get jobs as bartenders. How long do you think it will take them to get prepared to audit your tax return? How long to audit Amazon's?

I can say if you should get audited by these people, the process will take at least twice as long as it should because they will be inexperienced. A professional CPA will need to walk them through everything about which they have no clue. So, you tell me, is this $80 billion spent over the next ten years going to bring in an additional $204 billion from all those supposed tax cheats out there? And will spending an additional $8 billion a year on the IRS for the next ten years do anything to reduce inflation in 2022, 2023 or 2024? I think you know that answer.

Then there is the big lie of this bill. It repeals the Trump "rebate rule." This was a vague rule that has to do with Medicare Part D that was never implemented by Trump, has not been implemented by Biden and a regulation never going into effect. This is a magical savings of $120 billion that was never implemented and thus becomes "mystery savings."

Last, we must confront the corporate minimum tax of 15%. Sounds nice. I have read a substantial number of the analyses of these corporations who supposedly pay no taxes. We hear this kind of malarkey all the time. I will get a call from a client. They will tell me they spoke to someone, and they were paying no taxes. "Why am I paying so much?" My answer is always they are full of ---. You fill in the blank. Then I tell them to get a copy of the tax return for analysis. And that is the problem, the Left-wing analyses of these "non-paying entities" never includes a full analysis of the reasons why these entities are not paying taxes.

They may be getting research credits which Congress created to encourage companies to spend money on research and development with the idea that these companies will maintain or increase their position to be competitive in the world economy. They may be buying Low Income Housing Tax Credits which encourages the development of affordable housing. They may be getting credits for tax paid to foreign countries based on income made in foreign countries just like you may be getting on your investments. If we limit that tax offset, these companies will be paying a lot more than a minimum tax of 15% since they pay tax in America on their worldwide income.

This is the ultimate act of industrial policy initiated by the Democrats. They are throwing money at the computer chip industry and anybody who spends money on their questionable green policies. They want to pay for it by reducing deductions at a group of other companies. Those companies have been allowed to deduct the expense for new equipment and other purchases as opposed to writing them off over seven years or more. That encourages those companies to expand, improve efficiency and safety and hire more Americans. These tax and spend plans used to steal the money directly from you and me. Now they have lurched into full bore Socialistic government planning policy as if that has worked anywhere.

Remember the age-old truism. Corporations do not pay taxes; they just pass the tax onto their customers or cut jobs.

And the fact that a large portion of the tax increase will come from a group President Biden has stated he would not raise taxes on - those couples making under $400,000 a year. Senators Schumer and Manchin said nothing about that.

The Democrats got their wish with new spending of over to $750 billion between the Chips bill and the Inflation Will Continue Unabated Bill. They are never going to get their revenue offset. Mr. Manchin, how naïve you must be.


Bruce Bialosky is the founder of the Republican Jewish Coalition of California and a former Presidential appointee. You can follow Bruce on Twitter @brucebialosky.


TCR on the Air

Gary Polland is now a regular on "What's Your Point?" hosted by Greg Groogan on Fox 26 Houston, appearing every other week. Tune in or set your recorder for 7:00 am Sundays.

About Your Editor

Gary Polland is a long-time conservative and Republican spokesman, fund-raiser, and leader who completed three terms as the Harris County Republican Chairman. During his three terms, Gary was described as the most successful county Chairman in America by Human Events - The National Conservative Weekly. He is in his twenty-sixth year of editing a newsletter dealing with key conservative and Republican issues. The last twenty-one years he has edited Texas Conservative Review. As a public service for the last 18 years, Gary has published election guides for the GOP primary, general elections and city elections, all with the purpose of assisting conservative candidates. Gary also for 20 years cohosted Red, White and Blue on Houston Public Media TV 8 PBS Houston, longest running political talk show in Texas history. Gary serves on the Board of Directors of American Values, a national pro-family, pro-faith, conservative organization supporting the unity of the American people around the vision of our founding fathers and dedicated to reminding the public of the conservative principles fundamental to the survival of our nation. Gary is a practicing attorney and strategic consultant. He can be reached at (713) 621-6335.

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