The Balanced Budget, Debt Repayment, and Entitlements Protection Constitutional Convention

 The Balanced Budget, Debt Repayment, and Entitlements Protection Constitutional Convention

“When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic."   Benjamin Franklyn

The national debt becomes a problem when we borrow to keep up with runaway entitlements, not for economic development, infrastructure projects, natural disasters, or wars.  Entitlements, once given by the elected official, can never be taken back without losing their next election; in fact, the opposite is true. 

 This national debt is now over 35 trillion dollars, without counting state and local government debts and national unfunded obligations to Medicare and Social Security funds. Estimates for those run as high as over 70 trillion dollars of unpayable debt. These entitlement funds are not running out of money; their money has been stolen by Congress. 

There is also inevitable emergency funding in our future for earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, forest fires, infrastructure crumbling, pandemics, a new cold war, hot wars, national workers strikes, a new space race, environmental protection, economic crisis, civil disorders, crime prevention, undocumented immigration, criminal justice reform, educational restructuring, …  Where can money come from for any of these, if not from added national debt?  The clock is ticking.

 We desperately need a constitutional convention to pass a balanced budget amendment, a debt repayment amendment, and, finally, an entitlements protection amendment.  Entitlements must be self-sufficient and immune from government borrowing.  If left to Congress, the Social Security and Medicare Funds will always be in peril, and the promised bonanza from American energy will only result in a new spending orgy.

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Undocumented Immigration, The Great Misunderstanding

 

Undocumented Immigration, The Great Misunderstanding

“I was hungry and you gave me food,

I was thirsty and you gave me drink,

      I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”

Matthew 25: 31-40

The undocumented immigration crisis will not be resolved without an effective mechanism to prevent future illegal immigration, both through border crossing and Visa overstaying.  Most opposition to the legalization of the millions of undocumented residents will eventually disappear after that.  The insistence by some on the granting of another amnesty, number eight since 1986, without preventing future illegal entry, is disingenuous and divisive; it also prolongs the suffering of the millions living in the shadows.  

Undocumented immigrants who want to avoid deportation must register with the government. We do need millions of legal immigrants to come to America, but they must want to become Americans, not just live here. They need to be potentially self-supporting, law-abiding people; criminal behavior must result in automatic deportation.  They must be of diverse backgrounds, representing many parts of the world.  Finally, each cultural group needs to arrive in digestible numbers so that our natural assimilation machine continues to work without being overwhelmed by any cultural group.  We do not need sub-nations in our American nation.

Visit an excerpt from a television interview at Video

Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net

Visit my blog at www,carloslarce.blogspot.com

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Purchase my books at Amazon.com/US, Carlos L. Arce

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Common Sense, Not Billions More to Protect Our Leaders

 Common Sense, Not Billions More to Protect Our Leaders

“Common sense will tell us, that the power which

 hath endeavoured to subdue us, is of all others, the

most improper to defend us.”

― Thomas Paine, Common Sense

We Americans have gotten used to systematic failures in our society: unpayable national debt, failing schools, open borders, inhuman conditions in poverty, energy dependence, and infrastructure decay... 'At Nauseum.'  A new failure has been added: our incapacity to protect our leaders.  The monthly assassination attempts on the life of a former President and leading presidential candidate are incomprehensible, and perhaps providential intervention has precluded a national funeral. 

The finger-pointing is predictable, and its aftermath is invariable: more money. It makes everyone more hopeful and avoids a sense of social paralysis. It is probably correct that a little bit of added funding will help, but so will a reexamination of the use of available funds. How can gross inadequacies in the Secret Service's protection performance go unaccounted for?  What happened to the use of technology: drones in the air, infrared vision for the dark concentration of bushes, ground-based robots, motion detectors, trained police dogs... 

When I served as an infantry special forces sergeant in the Vietnam War, I was periodically assigned to the perimeter defense of what we called LZs for Landing Zones. These were small jungle bases with a dozen or more bunkers arranged as circling wagons embedded in a soil-berm that bulldozers had created as a defense perimeter.  The LZs were surrounded by a wood line of interminable dense jungle.  I protected myself and my 5-10 men in my bunker area with every tool and tactic at hand.  We had directional Claymore Mines in front of the bunker, boxes full of hand grenades, loaded rifle magazines, and hand flairs near every man lying on the berm; the bunkers were avoided during combat since they were magnets for rocket fire.  Trip flairs were all over the barbwire that encircled the perimeter.  A nightmarish, directed napalm-filled 55-gallon drum in front of the soil-berm was always loaded and ready for remote detonation. Every bayonet was fixed.  The base commander pre-aimed artillery fire on the woodline, frequently called for large artillery flairs over the LZ, Cobra helicopter gunships to circle above, and occasional 'Mad Minutes,' 60-second prophylactic free-for-all firing at the woodline. Then we prayed; no atheists there.  Enemy suicide assaults were, at times, almost daily.  I can sarcastically state that if the modern Secret Service leadership had directed the operations at the time, our casualties would have been much higher; we would have been overrun.

Aerial drones would have detected a sniper on a nearby roof or an unoccupied vehicle with a Harris-Walz bumper sticker parked on the road just outside the gulf course fence.  Low-flying drones could have been patrolling the inside of the surrounding chain-link fence.  Infrared drone-mounted cameras should have been observing the bushes attached to the chain-link fence.  Ground-based and aerial time-interval photos and videos would have detected changes between camera shots.  Smart computers can flag forms in a picture, like an aiming sniper.  Military-style communications should keep all security personnel in the loop.  The command post officer must be liable for obvious failures.  The opposition presidential candidate and the sitting president should be guarded with equal care.  Let's not have another 'nothing can be done' moment.        

     

 

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Surrender Management: America in Retreat

Surrender Management: America in Retreat

When I wrote my book series entitled "Surrender Management: America in Retreat" in 2006, I argued that our nation was surrendering to critical problems without solving them.  From national debt to undocumented immigration, from inferior education to criminal justice injustice, from a weak defense to the abandonment of the space race, from energy dependence to drug abuse, it all seemed that our political leaders were leading us over the cliff.  I wondered how long the public would wait to say enough.  I'm delighted to see the volatility of the current presidential contest because whoever wins, I believe many things will finally change.