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Volume XXI Number 8 - April 6, 2022     RSS Feed   

A Periodic Newsletter for Committed Texas Conservatives

In This Issue

Insane Public Policy From Joe Biden

Michael Ramirez On High Oil Prices

A Defining Moment By Bruce Bialosky, Contributing Editor

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Gary Polland
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Thoughts This Fortnight

Insane Public Policy From Joe Biden

1. Open Borders Here We Come

Month after month, we set a new record of illegal immigration on our southern border. The Biden Administration is hell bent on facilitating an invasion of illegals to the U.S.

The most recent Trump-era way to control the border Title 42 is being flushed. Note Title 42 was designated to allow deportation of anyone caught illegally crossing the border to keep sick and unvaccinated people from entering the country and it helped. Just like the border wall was helping. Just like the staying in Mexico policy was helping.

This is occurring while we are spending $14 billion to help the Ukraine secure its border.

Even Democratic congressional members from border states are complaining about the failure to control our border with about 2 million poor, unvaccinated, unaudited, and untested coming across our southern border in the last year or so. The bigger problem is this is accelerating and some experts estimate the numbers this year could climb to 6 million! No nation is a nation if it doesn’t control its own borders.

This goes on while the sainted Dr. Anthony Fauci warns we may not be done with Covid-19 problems.

2. Releasing 180 million Barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve ("SPR") to Save a Few Cents Per Gallon

There are many ways to reduce oil and gas costs, none of which the Biden administration supports, which includes reducing the Biden regulations on oil companies; accelerating pipeline permits; encourage banks to loan to oil and gas companies; suspend the Jones Act (regarding rules for shipping between domestic ports); complete the Keystone XL Pipeline.

The scam of release from SPR is just plain stupid on multiple levels:

  1. Little impact on the announcement, crude prices fell 4.9% as markets respond to short-term supply and demand changes.

  2. The SPR after taking 180 million barrels leaves no effective cushion, only around 300 million barrels in reserve. The U.S., as a member of the International Emergency Agency, is required to hold 90 days of net import cover in reserves, which is around 300 million barrels.

  3. The purpose of the SPR is to have a reserve in case of an emergency, war, oil boycott but not to drop prices by 5 or 10 cents a gallon. This act is totally political designed to ease the pain from the Democrats ridiculous energy policy.

  4. If we are to have an SPR we need to refill it, which by the way will increase future demand and oil costs. Do you recall the Democrats in Congress refusing President Trump's request to complete the filling of SPR when oil prices were considerably lower? How is that decision looking now?

3. Iran Deal Two, A Worse Deal than Obama's and Russia is in the Middle

Despite Biden's harsh rhetoric and Ukraine assistance to fight the Russia invasion, we are using Russia as an intermediary in the Iran surrender negotiations.

This horrific deal empowers the leading state sponsor of terror and sticks it to our allies. Israeli Foreign Policy expert and head of the Project on Regional Middle East Developments at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, summarizes why this deal is insane:

"This agreement is bad for Israel and for the U.S. ... Real supervision would not, unfortunately, happen under this deal. There is no supervision today, but when the deal takes effect, it will be far from sufficient either."

"... once that Iran re-enters the JCPOA, it will gain access to its frozen assets (about $100 billion) and increased revenues from oil exports. The vast sums can fortify the regime at home, increase its activity to export the Islamic revolution in the region and beyond, and strengthen its malignant proxies.

"Russia, for its part, has made a connection between its war and the nuclear agreement by delaying the signature stage of the agreement as it sought 'assurances' from Washington that sanctions placed on it would not extend to Russian activities within Iran, such as its work to operate and build nuclear reactors at Bushehr.

"... the disorganized American withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the cautious American response to the Russian buildup and attack against Ukraine, convinced the rulers in Tehran that their policy was justified and encouraged them to stick to their position. If the agreement does go into effect, Israel will have to mount a covert campaign to thwart Iran's nuclear program."

And Gary Bauer, former Domestic Advisor to President Ronald Reagan and now head of American Values opines in his wildly followed End of Day newsletter:

"The United States and Iran do not talk to each other. Unbelievably, our negotiations with Iran are being conducted by Putin's Russia."

"Biden has already conceded that his deal will lift tough economic sanctions on Iran, and the Islamic Republic will be allowed to build several new nuclear power plants.

"Biden has conceded that Russia will build them, in spite of the sanctions we have imposed. Those plants are worth billions of dollars to Putin's Russia.

"The Biden Administration is reportedly allowing Russia to buy Iran's enriched uranium, while Russia supplies Iran with fuel for its nuclear reactors. Supposedly, that's how we will know that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon. In other words, Biden is trusting Russia to police Iran's behavior.

"But it gets even worse.

"Just like the 2015 Obama/Biden nuclear deal, there is no way the Senate will be allowed to vote on the Biden/Harris nuclear deal with Iran. Biden will call it a 'framework' or an 'executive agreement' - anything other than a treaty, which requires 67 votes in the Senate to become binding law.

  1. "Should we be sending nuclear material to the very nation we are trying to rally NATO against?

  2. "Should we allow our enemy to negotiate for us in any deal with Iran?

  3. "And who's defending our interests or Israel's interests in this deal?

"These are legitimate questions our elected leaders and serious journalists should be asking."

Michael Ramirez On High Oil Prices

Michael Ramirez is the most brilliant, creative editorial cartoonist working in the US today. See below how in a simple cartoon he explains the disastrous energy policy of President Biden and his party.

A Defining Moment
By Bruce Bialosky, Contributing Editor

We are coming off two years of lockdowns that were countered with government programs spending billions and billions of dollars to offset the effects of those government-imposed restrictions. We are then hit with a burst of inflation at levels not seen in America for forty years. Additionally, one of the world's largest energy suppliers decided to attack its neighbor without provocation. This has all brought to the forefront the failed philosophies of a political party and a lesson to be learned.

With the soaring cost of energy and the abandonment of sourcing that energy from America and Russia, there is a logical and pragmatic solution. Restore our own production to the levels we had prior to the Democrats taking over our government. Unfortunately, the party is so driven by their blind allegiance to their green energy policy that has caused this crisis that an adjustment is not even a consideration.

First, Washington proposed a release of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve. One might think that the reserve is for legitimate national emergencies and not just politically embarrassing price increases. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced an agreement among 30 countries to release some 60 million barrels from reserves. The U.S. Has made a commitment to release 30 million barrels. To understand the significance of that, know it equals roughly 1.5 days of U.S. usage.

Then the government wonks in DC suggested a gas tax holiday. At 18.4 cents per gallon, that would barely dent the price of gas at your local station. California then started throwing around their own gas tax holiday. Governor Newsom suggested he wanted the holiday. At 53.3 cents per gallon (second highest state tax in the nation), that would be a significant decrease. Newsom also suggested eliminating an automatic tax increase that going into effect on July 1, 2022, but the legislature balked.

Before we go further, the gas tax is a use tax. It is supposedly dedicated to the repair of roads and bridges. Drive in California and one might think how the funds are not being spent in a highly effective manner maintaining roads and highways.

The state currently has a projected surplus of $46 billion so expending some of that to alleviate significant financial pain for residents would be a shot in the arm - especially for middle class workers.

It would be too easy a solution to let the people who use gas get a direct benefit by reducing the price of the product they are taxing – gasoline. The legislators in Sacramento have a better idea. They want to send every taxpayer a $400 check. They even said it would cover a once-a-week fill-up for a year. The problem is the check goes to every taxpayer whether they have a car or not or whether they use gasoline in their vehicle.

This is a quintessentially Democrat solution. Instead of letting people make their own decisions on their money they will make their decisions for them. They will run the money through their hands, processed by the government union employees who are the Democrats principal campaign contributors and then give us back the residue (at their discretion of course). We will never know the cost of this program which would be zero if they simply suspended the gas tax.

This rebate program comes on the heels of the Secretary in charge of the unemployment program in California stating that $11.4 billion of benefits were given out fraudulently. She believes it could be an additional $20 billion. Did Ms. Su get fired in disgrace? No, she was hired by the Biden Administration to be the Deputy Secretary of Labor.

With this recent history one might think sending out random checks for $9 billion might give one pause. Not these Sacramento Democrats.

The latest proposals have Newsom recommending $400 debit cards (that worked so well with unemployment benefits why not bring it back for an encore – they never learn). The good thing is that the cards would be limited to two per person if you happen to own two vehicles. The members of the legislature proposed $200 rebates per family member (six-year-olds need gas tax rebates), but income restrictive up to $250,000 (whatever that means except we know it is punishing people for being successful but does not recognize the cost of living in California has been driven ridiculously high by government policies.) Of course, these silly ideas do not recognize EVs owners who will also get the money.

There are a combined one million EVs and hybrids in California. They pay either no gasoline tax or a severely reduced amount. They will likewise be getting $400 debit cards along with all the criminals who got the unemployment debit cards and went on a buying spree on Rodeo Drive. Makes sense, doesn't it?

Virtually every time there is a problem that is created by a Democrat induced program, their solution is to create another program instead of either correcting the existing program or dismantling it. No wonder California has 25% of the country's state government unionized employees.

The lesson to be learned here is this is what happens when you have one party control all the levers of a state. The last time a Republican was elected statewide in California was 2006 and that was Arnold - enough said. With the Democrats having control of every statewide constitutional office, supermajorities in both houses of the legislature and almost every judge appointed by their team, controls on them simply do not exist.

Ask the Russians or the Chinese if one party government works well. That is how simple problems end up with complicated solutions. This could be your future.


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

Tune In To What's Your Point?
On Fox 26 Sunday, April 10th at 7:00 AM

TCR Editor Gary Polland returns to Fox 26 Houston this Sunday, April 10th, on What's Your Point? hosted by Greg Groogan. The show will be a wide ranging discussion of current political issues. As always, Gary will bring a reasoned conservative viewpoint to the show. Just tune in at 7:00 am live, YouTube it, set your DVR or go to: https://www.fox26houston.com/.


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.

Red, White, and Blue featuring TCR Editor Gary Polland on Fridays at 7:30 pm on Houston Public Media TV 8, replaying Saturday at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 8, Monday at 11:30 pm on Channel 8.2 and on the web at www.houstonpublicmedia.org.

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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 is also in his 21st year of co-hosting 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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