FEBRUARY PROGRAM REMINDER
Bill Ames, author of “Texas Trounces the Left’s War on History,” will speak at this month’s meeting – Wednesday, February 27 at 11:30am (11:00am social). Fort Worth Club, 12th Floor, 306 7th St., Fort Worth.
To make a luncheon reservation ($25 with reservation, $27 without), RSVP by noon on Monday, February 25th to Helen Bavousett at 817-516-0704 or byronandhelen@live.com.
If you are not having lunch, no reservation is necessary. Those who RSVP but do not attend will be billed for their reservation cost. (Please do not RSVP using the Comment/Reply section below.)
Valet parking will be available ($5.00).
(For more information about the February program, please click HERE.)
Cyndy McCoy, President of Fort Worth Repulican Women
Read President Cyndy McCoy’s
February 2013 Message:
Find it by clicking HERE.
Many thanks to Judge Mike Hrabal for sponsoring the Fort Worth Republican Women’s February Board Meeting.
Judge Mike Hrabal
Judge Hrabal was elected judge of Tarrant County Court at Law #3 in 2010. He is Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law and Civil Trial Law and has been an Associate Member of Fort Worth Republican Women for many years. Fort Worth Republican Women thank Judge Hrabal for his support and his service to the citizens of Tarrant County!
Texas Federation of Republican Women’s Legislative Day is April 18, 2013 and Fort Worth Republican Women’s Biennial Bus Trip to the event has been confirmed! The deadline for making your reservation for the event is March 1st. Join thousands of other Republican women in Austin on April 18th by signing up today.
Highlights of the day include: Complimentary continental breakfast and coffee to start the day, Legislative Committee hearings and House & Senate sessions, Awards luncheon with special guest speakers, Republican-themed workshops in the afternoon. Enjoy all the fun of the day and leave the driving to us!
Registration & Bus Fare – $100. To find a Registration Form, click HERE. For more information, contact Linda Vautrain at (817) 735-1300 or lkvautrain@gmail.com.
From National Federation of Republican Women Political Briefing
Week of February 14, 2013
What You Need to Know About the Sequester
What is the sequester? The sequester was an idea brought forth by the Obama administration during debt ceiling talks involving the “super committee” of 2011. The sequester was the administration’s threat over the super committee to bring about budget cuts of 1.2 trillion dollars over 10 years. The sequester was supposed to be so distasteful to both Democrats and Republicans that it would serve as an impetus to achieve the administration’s desire for specific budget cuts. The super committee failed, and the sequester stayed.
When will it go into effect? It was originally supposed to take effect in January of 2013, but the fiscal cliff deal postponed the date until March 1, 2013.
What happens if it takes effect? If the sequester goes into effect on March 1, it will set off a series of automatic cuts to defense and entitlement programs that equal $965 billion over the next ten years. But what do “cuts” mean in this case? As Michael Tanner observes in National Review Online, “the sequester is a ‘cut’ to federal spending only in the Washington sense of ‘any reduction from baseline increases is a cut.’ In reality, even if the sequester goes through, the federal government will spend $2.14 trillion more in 2022 than it does today.” Further, the “sequester would reduce the growth in domestic discretionary spending by $309 billion over ten years. But annual spending on these programs will increase by $90 billion over that period.” In other words, even with the sequester “cuts,” we are going to spend more money on domestic programs in 2022 than we do today.
What is the budget baseline and how does it relate to the sequester? The budget baseline is what the Congressional Budget Office determines federal revenues, outlays, surpluses, and deficits will be assuming future budgets will equal the current budget times the inflation rate times the population growth rate. The current budget baseline says that the government will spend $44.8 trillion between 2013 and 2022. The sequester will cut this number by $1.16 trillion, barely 2.6 percent of what the government plans to spend in 2022.
How much would it cut government spending this year? While the sequester cuts $965 billion over the next ten years, it would cut spending by $44 billion in 2013. The expected budget for 2013 is $3.97 trillion, so a $44 billion cut amounts to 1.2% of the budget. The federal government spends $44 billion in approximately 4.5 days.
Some Republicans are worried about the cuts to defense, what about those? Yes, the sequester will cut the budget for the Department of Defense, but in inflation-adjusted terms, the rate of spending will never go below 2007 levels. As Tanner points out, “By 2015 [defense spending] will rise again, surpassing 2012 levels, ($554 billion) by 2019 and reaching $589 billion by 2021… By comparison, the United States spent, in 2013 dollars, an average of just $435 billion per year on defense during the Cold War (1948-1990), when we faced a much greater conventional threat.” Further, the cuts to defense do not effect war spending, only base defense spending. Next year’s budget for the Defense Department is $552 billion, and the sequester will require a $55 billion cut from that budget, amounting to 10%. These cuts do not effect war spending. Defense Secretary Panetta has already ordered the first steps toward readying the Defense Department to deal with the cuts, by “freezing civilian hiring, delaying certain contract awards and curtailing nonessential facility maintenance.” Again, the sequester has not and will not impose drastic cuts to necessary defense spending.
How will the cuts affect GDP? The Walls Street Journal estimates the cuts amount to 0.5% of GDP.
Besides some defense spending, what other programs are exempted from the sequester? Apart from war spending at the Department of Defense, other programs exempted from the sequester include Social Security, Medicaid, the children’s health insurance program, refundable tax credits, supplemental security income, the food stamp program, and veteran’s health benefits. Medicare, however, is not exempted, and will see a 2% cut in Medicare payments to insurance plans and doctors who accept Medicare.
Deeming the sequester “a pittance,” Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) pointed out that “even with the sequester, spending goes up $7 trillion or $8 trillion over the next ten years.” The sequester cuts are standing law, and the only cuts to spending that have been agreed to in this administration.
NFRW compiled this analysis from the work of Michael Tanner for National Review Online (Don’t Fear the Sequester), Donna Cassata from the Associated Press (The Nuts and Bolts of the Sequester), the Wall Street Journal (The Unscary Sequester, and Panetta Orders First Concrete Sequester Steps), and Susan Jones for CNSNews.com (Sen. Rand Paul: The Sequester is a Pittance). Also, see the latest CBO report on the sequester by clicking HERE.
Tarrant County Constable Jon H. Siegel, Precinct 6
FORT WORTH REPUBLICAN WOMEN WELCOME
JON SIEGEL, TARRANT COUNTY CONSTABLE, PRECINCT 6
On January 1, Jon H. Siegel took office, replacing Constable Joe Kubes, who retired after a long career as Constable for Precinct 6, which encompasses Southwest Fort Worth. Born and raised in Fort Worth, Constable Siegel graduated from Arlington Heights High School and brings with him to office 20 years of law enforcement experience, including 12 years with the Tarrant County Constables office. He holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Dallas Baptist University and a Masters in Public Administration from U.T.A. He has been married for 33 years and has three grown daughters. Welcome, Constable Siegel!
Mark Your Calendar: Texas Federation of Republican Women will sponsor a Leadership Workshop on Saturday, March 2, from 9am-2pm at the Fort Worth Club. For more information, see Calendar of Events in column to the right or contact Beryl Dowd at beryldowd@hotmail.com or (817) 788-4939, (817) 504-8401 (cell).
FORT WORTH REPUBLICAN WOMEN RECOGNIZE
2012 PROGRAM SPEAKERS
BY DONATING BOOKS TO LOCAL SCHOOLS
On behalf of the speakers at the Fort Worth Republican Women 2012 programs, the Fort Worth Republican Women have donated the following books to local schools:
- Uncle Sam’s Plantation by Star Parker, donated to Eastern Hills High School in honor of Robert S. Pfeiffer, founder of the Federal Safety Net
- Ronald Reagan 100 Years, donated to Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School in honor of Justices Bob McCoy and Lee Gabriel of the Fort Worth Court of Appeals
- A Memoir of My Extraordinary, Ordinary Family and Me, by Condoleezza Rice, donated to Handley Middle School in honor of Judge Bonnie Sudderth of the 352nd Judicial District Court
- Read All About It!, by Laura and Jenna Bush, donated to M.L. Phillips Elementary School in honor of Mary Louise Garcia, Tarrant County Clerk
- By the Hand of Providence, by Rod Gragg, donated to the Young Men’s Leadership Academy in honor of Leslie Recine and Jim Bochert
- Tea Party Revival: The Conscience of a Conservative Reborn: The Tea Party Revolt Against Unconstrained Spending and Growth of the Federal Government, donated to Paschal High School in honor of Jon-David Wells
STANDING UP TO LIBERAL BULLYING
FWRW Associate member Marijane Smithmerman (wife of Texas Railroad Commissioner Chairman Barry Smitherman), recommends an article to us about standing up to liberal bullying. The article recently appeared in The American Thinker, and it can be accessed by clicking HERE. Check it out!
GoodReads Review (www.goodreads.com): In this book, Andy Andrews “brings his lessons and perspective into the important arena of government, citizenship and what it means to completely uphold the truth.”
If the truth is what sets us free, what does it mean to live in a society where truth is absent? How do truth and lies in the past shape our destiny today? Through the lens of the Holocaust, best-selling author Andy Andrews examines the critical need for truth in our relationships, our communities and our government.
In this compact, nonpartisan book, Andrews urges readers to be “careful students” of the past, seeking accurate, factual accounts of events and decisions that illuminate choices we face now. By considering how the Nazi Regime was able to carry out over eleven million institutional killings between 1933 and 1945, Andrews advocates for an informed population that demands honesty and integrity from its leaders and from each other.
The future of our country rests on the ability to separate the truth from lies, and Andrews compels each of us to examine our leaders’ claims with a critical eye. His question — How do you kill eleven million people? — is provocative, but his warning is clear. “Only a clear understanding of the answer to this question and the awareness of an involved populace can prevent history from continuing to repeat itself as it already has, time and again.”
FORT WORTH REPUBLICAN WOMEN 