So what's wrong with raising the "minimum wage"?

I don't think there's anyone who honestly believes that our present economy is in good shape.  All the talking points reminiscent of Stalinist era propaganda aren't going to persuade most people that things are getting better when they are losing their jobs, losing their health coverage, and experiencing higher taxes, fees and regulation.  There's a lot of pain out there, and it's only getting worse.  So in the midst of our economic "malaise" as Jimmy Carter was fond of saying, why are we even talking about raising the minimum wage?  I can remember a time, not that long ago, when the minimum wage was much lower than today, and the economy was booming.  Jobs were plentiful, and employee retention was an issue because people were leaving their jobs to take a new one right around the corner.  The thought of raising the minimum wage at that time never came up for discussion. (I won't mention the name of the President at that time, but his name rhymed with Charles Dickens' teacher of pickpockets in Oliver Twist).  So apparently, talk of raising the minimum wage comes up only during hard times.  But isn't this really getting it all wrong?  Part of the problem is that the minimum wage, like any other Big Government program, never goes away, and it continues to grow.  If the whole concept of the minimum wage is to assist people in tough times, shouldn't we be able to reduce the minimum wage in good times?  It ain't gonna happen folks.  And that is the fundamental flaw with minimum wage laws.  Not only do they kill jobs, they act as a permanent drag on the economy because they increase the cost of labor without any commensurate increase in productivity.  Instead of  employing large scale government programs to "fix" the problem, it would be better to adopt specific, targeted, and temporary assistance.

Why the Murray-Ryan budget deal is no deal at all.

The problem with the Murray-Ryan budget:

The biggest problem is that no meaningful action is being taken because congressional Republicans are petrified of being slammed in the main stream media. They play defensively always, hoping that they can just make it to the next election. In the meantime, while Republicans are wringing their hands over the best "strategy" to employ until the next election, the Progressives aka Communists are further entrenching themselves in the bureaucracy and autocratic agencies that use regulations with the force of law to wreck the economy and advance their wealth redistribution schemes. As an example, note how the Republican establishment attacks other members of the party for trying to defund or repeal ObamaCare. They whine and cry and say "It's futile!". In the meantime the administration, in spite of all the spectacular failures that we're seeing, is charging right along for full and complete implementation of the ACA. In fact, this Murray-Ryan budget guarantees full funding for ObamaCare, and lowers the threshold in the Senate to vote on and approve new taxes. Give me a break!

Intervention in Syria is a Bad Idea

Those who advocate intervention in Syria are way off on this issue.  There are far too many unanswered questions about what actually is occurring in the region for rushed and reckless decisions. The argument that military intervention must take place “now” because the national security interests of the US are at stake is unsupported or weak at best. It should be kept in mind that to Obama, anything Congress does is meaningless.  He's already said no matter what they do, he's going to "go it alone".  This is just a way for him to throw the football back into the lap of the Republican party and ultimately blame them for anything that goes wrong.

And there are lots of things that can go wrong.  Any kind of military action should have taken place long ago. At this point nothing we do, especially after announcing a limited action, is going to affect Iran's view of the United States.  Iran already mocks us as being weak, and whatever we do in Syria is not going to deter Iran from proceeding forward with their development of a deliverable nuclear bomb.  So all we can do by this pinprick of a move is kill some Russian soldiers on the ground, provoke a retaliatory attack on Israel by Iran, and possibly start a conflagration in the region.  Yeah, Al Qaeda would just love that. Anytime that RINO sellouts like McCain, Lindsay, and Boehner join with Obama, Pelosi and Reid on an issue, it’s not going to be pretty.

Obama bans re-importation of WW II rifles

Once again, King Obama has decided that Congress is totally irrelevant and has decided to take “executive action” to control “gun violence”.  By diktat he has now banned the re-importation of long rifles from WWII which were supplied to our allies. This will apply to Garand carbines and the M1A and will essentially result in the destruction of the CMP program.  When Obama made his announcement, I was curious as to just how many crimes had been committed with these rifles.  The answer is “zero” though our fearless leader failed to mention that statistic.  So under the guise of controlling “gun-violence” which is supposed to be a good thing, why is the president using the power and prestige of his office to act in a totally meaningless way?  It doesn’t require much analysis to see that there is a complete disconnect between what Obama is doing, and what goal or principle his action is intended to promote.  This is just another bitch-slap to the Constitution and move towards complete disarmament of the civilian population.