Dear Editor,
I am deeply concerned about the legislation currently being pushed by liberal Senator Dick Durbin that would benefit Chinese credit card companies at the expense of American small businesses. This bill would require credit card companies to partner with at least two unaffiliated network providers, including China Union Pay, which has deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
It is alarming to see how China is trying to steal American data, and this bill would only make it easier for them to do so. Allowing a Chinese credit card company to access our personal information is like inviting a spy balloon to hover over every single American with a credit card and take whatever data they want.
This legislation is a classic example of Democrat policy that hurts Americans rather than helping them. By partnering with China Union Pay, Americans' information will be freely handed over to the CCP, giving China an unfair advantage over our small businesses. This will only make it more challenging for small businesses that are already struggling to compete in the market.
It's crucial to remember that Communist China remains the most significant threat to our country. We need to be careful and vigilant, and the last thing we should be doing is giving them an opportunity to hurt us. I am grateful that Louisiana has Senators Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy who continually put Louisianans' interests first and oppose any pro-China bills that could harm our country.
Senator Durbin and the Chinese Communist Party must be stopped, and I hope that Senators Cassidy and Kennedy will continue to stand firm against this harmful legislation. Louisiana deserves strong leaders who will protect our credit cards from those who wish America ill.
Sincerely,
DK Willard
Posts filed under Democrats
LADEMOS Chair to "Hear Concerns and Answer Questions" About Potential Run for Governor
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Don’t Let Dems Push Last Minute Consumer Price Hike
Dear Editor,
With the recent midterm elections wrapping up and all eyes on the new Congress, it's easy to forget that Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and the rest of the Democrats in power still have a few months left to impose their agenda on the country.
Analysts in Washington have reported that we can all expect a big fight over an appropriations bill before the new group takes control. Most likely, this will be Biden's last shot to push legislation through a fully Dem-controlled Congress, so it's safe to say that anything put forth will include all kinds of Democrat pet projects.
For instance, a provision that Democrats have been trying to tag on to almost every bill for the past year is Sen. Dick Durbin's S.4674. This bill is a sweetheart deal for big corporations like Amazon, Walmart, and other small business killers.
It would impose price controls on the payment processing market and pass the cost on to average consumers by raising banking fees on checking accounts and other financial products that average Americans use daily.
This provision might cut costs for big corporations, but American small businesses and consumers would have to pick up the tab — just another bad example of corporate cronyism that we must oppose.
But don't just take it from me - The Hill reported earlier this fall that "the Durbin Amendment …generated benefits for large-box retailers, [but] imposed substantial net costs on the majority of consumers, especially those from lower-income households."
Not a great idea for a law at a time when low-income families are already struggling to make ends meet! We cannot let them slip this in at the end of the year.
Don't let these recent elections distract from the fact that Pelosi and Schumer are still in power. Tell your legislators to keep their feet to the fire and fight back against pork-filled spending bills. Just because the newly elected Congress may be more sensible with the legislation they promote does not mean we can take our eyes off the ball.
Oppose the Democrats' push to saddle us with Durbin's anti-small business, anti-consumer legislation (S.4674.) in the eleventh hour.
-DK Willard
SCALISE: We Don't Need the "New Normal" Given to Us By Democrats
Stacey Abrams: "There Is No Such Thing As a Heartbeat At Six Weeks
Democrats Want to Empty Our Prisons
SCALISE: Democrats Have Been Questioning Election Results
White House Press Secretary Grilled on Tweet Calling 2016 Election 'Stolen'
A Recession Is Here, and Democrats Are to Blame
Well, it is official: As of yesterday’s bad second quarter economic report showing that our economy had shrunk by .9%, America is in a recession. This is because the first quarter report also indicated that our economy had shrunk (by 1.6%), and the commonly accepted definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of economic contraction.
At least that was the commonly accepted definition of a national recession until Joe Biden called upon his minions to proclaim in unison that no, we were not really in a recession and the economy was actually in pretty good shape. Joe himself then made a brief comment to reporters to the effect that it didn’t seem like a recession to him, before fleeing the scene and leaving reporters to devour his easily befuddled press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre. She promptly declared that “We’re seeing a transition into stable and steady growth…,” but she was clearly way out of her element. We seriously doubt that many folks were paying much attention to her musings on the state of the economy, anyway.
But the fact remains that things are clearly not going well- that much is obvious to even the most heedless of our fellow citizens. The economy is volatile and substantial parts of it are performing poorly. Inflation is soaring, energy prices are double what they were when this president took office, necessities like food and housing are becoming unaffordable for many, and borrowing money to stay afloat has become more expensive for all. Strangely, several million people refuse to return to the workforce despite the fact that there are plenty of jobs to be had. What’s more, the experts don’t really know where we are headed- will this be a relatively mild recession, or as many predict, are things about to get one Hell of a lot worse?
Now this is not a good place to be, and one might well ask how we got here? But first, allow me to digress for a moment: Recall that less than two short years ago, under President Trump the economy was recovering from COVID, inflation was under two percent, interest rates were near their historic lows, and energy was plentiful and cheap (gas was half its current price). Several COVID vaccines were only months away and our national debt was many trillions of dollars lower than it is now.
So how did we arrive at this sad state of affairs in so short a time? The answer is obvious- only a doddering but deceitful Joe Biden, controlled by the progressive, neo-Marxist wing of the Democrat Party, could have caused this much damage so quickly and so completely!
Who else would have begun a new presidency by attempting to shut down the eighty percent of our energy production provided by fossil fuels? Who else would have mis-spent trillions of dollars, much of it for Democrat political ends, thereby creating huge imbalances in the supply and demand for our nations’ goods, even as productivity had not fully recovered to pre-COVID levels? Too much money chasing around too few goods is the classic cause of inflation, and reducing domestic energy production even as the economy required more energy, could not help but cause gas prices to shoot up.
So how bad will the economy, and with it the lives of most American citizens, ultimately worsen? Even as I write this article, a new half-trillion dollar round of spending is wending its way through Congress, along with a tax increase. (Thank you, Joe Manchin!) This will further stoke inflation, of course, but the tax increase will make a serious recession far more likely. To tame the out-of-control inflation, the Federal Reserve last Wednesday raised interest rates another three quarters of a percent on top of the one and a half percent increases of the previous two months. Even worse, the Fed hinted at further raises in the coming months. Don’t forget that these rate increases are intended to slow down our economy, which again, will also make the recession worse.
As we teeter on the precipice of an unpredictable economic future (and I have not even touched on the rapidly deteriorating geopolitical situation, the worsening border crisis, the politicization of our school curricula, etc.), be reminded that the gross and misdirected overspending was all avoidable. The attempt to shut down most of our energy production and replace it with expensive and unreliable sources was also avoidable. Why were such basic economic mistakes ever made in the first place?
The fundamental problem here is that progressive Democrats do not learn and they do not admit the error of their ways, because they are Marxists. If we learn anything from history, it is that Marxists do not learn from history. In fact, they are even now complaining that the problem with our economy is that they have not done enough to transform the United States into a more social democratic or even outright Socialist nation.
So be forewarned and vote to save our country on November 8th, before it’s too late!
Louis Gurvich, Chairman
Republican Party of Louisiana
JOHNSON: Democrats Refuse to Allow Amendment to Protect Military Service Members From Latest Gun Grab
Democrats Refused Requests To Consider Resolution Condemning Violence & Vandalism on Pro-Life & Religious Organizations
SCALISE: Democrats Won't Bring Bills to Address Problems for Americans
Peterson pushed Edwards campaign, Democratic Party to work with firms in fraud scheme
Karen Carter Peterson pushed for the Louisiana Democratic Party to award a contract worth tens of thousands of dollars to a New Orleans political consulting firm just a few weeks before the 2019 primary election for governor. That’s according to the state party’s executive director at the time, who says he questioned Peterson, then the party chair, before learning Gov. John Bel Edwards’ campaign was OK with the deal.
Read more: Peterson pushed Edwards campaign, Democratic Party to work with firms in fraud scheme
Breaking News: Democrats Actually Don’t Want Illegal Immigrants In Their "Sanctuary Cities"
Nothing Curative About Dems Inflation, Higher Taxes and Prices
Congressional Democrats are one step closer to passing their trillion-dollar "Build Back Better" spending package.
On July 6 U.S. Senate leaders hashed out a key proposal that would allow Medicare to "negotiate" with pharmaceutical companies over prescription drug prices.
The effort is part of Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer's, D- N.Y., drive to coax centrist Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., into voting for the huge spending bill.
But what Democrats are contemplating is actually a de facto system of price controls — and it would destroy the market for drug research.
Read more: Nothing Curative About Dems Inflation, Higher Taxes and Prices
Karen Carter Peterson expected to plead guilty to gambling with campaign, Dem party funds
Peterson, an outspoken champion of liberal causes, had been a state senator for 12 years before her resignation earlier this year, and before that she spent a decade in the House. She lost a 2021 congressional race to U.S. Rep. Troy Carter.
If Peterson acknowledges steering money intended for the struggling Louisiana Democratic Party to her own use, it will add considerably to the controversy around her eight-year tenure as party chair, from 2012 to 2020.
Read more: Karen Carter Peterson expected to plead guilty to gambling with campaign, Dem party funds
Cassidy: The Democratic Party Should Change Its Name Due to Its Racist Past
The Democratic Party was founded by slave owners. These slave owners insisted upon a constitution which preserved slavery. The Democratic Party opposed Republican efforts to end slavery. The Democratic Party opposed Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. After the Civil War, Democrats opposed Republican efforts to give newly freed slaves voting rights and civil rights. In more recent times, Democratic members of the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives fought Civil Rights legislation, beginning with Republican President Dwight Eisenhower’s Civil Rights Act of 1957.
Democratic governors fought integration of schools and public services, and the list goes on. It took courageous decisions by Republican judges and the enforcement of these laws by President Eisenhower who at one point called out the military to overcome resistance.
Two Democratic luminaries, Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black and long serving Senator Robert Byrd, were members of the KKK as young men.
Read more: Exclusive — Sen. Bill Cassidy: The Democratic Party Should Change Its Name Due to Its Racist Past
Pelosi’s drug pricing plan puts medical innovation at risk
Photo source: Stat News
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi recently unveiled her drug pricing proposal (HR 3, also known as the Lower Drug Costs Now Act of 2019), which is being debated in key congressional committees this week. It is unprecedented in size and scope, dramatically expanding the role of the federal government in health care decision-making. It also opens the door for bureaucrats in the United States and in foreign countries to determine the type of research companies should pursue and how and when patients can access new treatments and cures.
The speaker claims that her plan to lower drug costs allows the government to “negotiate” prices for 250 medicines, but that is not how it would work. The legislation creates a “ceiling price” based on the average price a medicine is sold in six foreign countries with government-run health care systems — countries that limit patient access to innovative treatments. The legislation also sets a “target price,” which equals the lowest price of the medicine in any of the six countries.
Biopharmaceutical companies can accept the target price or attempt to convince the government they should be paid closer to the ceiling price. But unlike a negotiation in which both parties have leverage, if a company does not accept the price the government is willing to pay for a medicine, it is forced to pay a tax of up to 95% of sales of the medicine. That is not negotiation.
Read more: Pelosi’s drug pricing plan puts medical innovation at risk
KENNEDY: Someone needs to tell AOC the voices in her head aren’t real
Our own Senator from Louisiana, John Kennedy, had the following to say recently regarding the buffoon and clown from New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her claims regarding illegal immigrants:
“Let me be frank. Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez...someone needs to tell her that the voices in her head are not real. She says that the men and women of our border patrol and our authorities are intentionally running concentration camps on the southern border. She needs to go to the Holocaust Museum and see what a concentration camp is. The problem we’re having at the border, a problem that Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez has helped create is that we have 5,000 people a day, not a week, not a month, a day coming into this country. And we don’t have a place to put them. The Department of Homeland Security is out of money and the congresswoman knows that. She says the conditions are inhumane. But yet, when we send a bill over to her to vote to improve those conditions, she voted no. Her hypocrisy is breathtaking. This is the bottom line. Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez believes that illegal immigration is a moral good. And she believes that the border is just a nuisance and it should be open; and, I don’t think that’s what America believes.”
Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana
Read more: Sen. John Kennedy calls out Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “Her hypocrisy is breathtaking”
LAGOP: Former Edwards Administration Official Admits to Stealing Over $550,000 from Hospital Charity
Prosecutors say Funes stole gift cards intended for cancer patients
(Baton Rouge, LA) – A member of the Governor’s Healthcare Transition Committee pled guilty in a Baton Rouge Federal Court today to charges of wire fraud and money laundering.
Federal Investigators caught John Paul Funes chartering private flights for his friends and family while forcing the Our Lake of the Lake Foundation to cover the expenses by creating fraudulent bills for “outbound patient transports”. Investigators also discovered Funes repeatedly stole gift cards intended for cancer patients and spent them for his personal benefit.
After being elected Governor, John Bel Edwards named John Paul Funes to his Healthcare Transition Committee and tasked the committee with developing a plan to expand Medicaid in Louisiana.
The Governor’s expansion of Medicaid was a disaster. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted, tens of thousands of people have been kicked out of the program, and thousands have died on waiting lists.
Conservatives in Louisiana have been shocked at the amount of fraud and waste and have been wondering for years why an Administration would make so many mistakes with so much taxpayer money at risk.
Today we found out why.
