Can you believe that 70 House of Representative Democrats and 12 U.S. Senate Democrats have signed onto the proposal put forth by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, called the “New Green Deal”? Not only is this proposal economically unfeasible, but it is also physically impractical, in other words, it is the “New Green “Raw” Deal”.

Most economists, not beholden to environmental groups and leftist foundations, and just plain practical people, look upon this proposal as an attack upon our free enterprise economic system as it was handed down to us by our founding fathers. To implement the provisions of this nonsensical proposal, it would increase our debt by tens of trillions of dollars, and it would put many millions of workers out of a job. This would be giant job killer through and through.

This whole idea has the foot print of Karl Marx all over it. If it ever got implemented by some freak of nature or by some brain-washed Marxist/Socialist fools, the United States would no longer exist, and we would become another Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and most of the African countries etc., who have instituted a form of Marxism/Socialism into their economies. Is this what these so-called intelligent legislators want the U.S. to become?

To pinpoint where this inane (or insane) proposal evolved from, you can look no further than our education establishment in our high schools and colleges. Most of these educational institutions are stocked with teachers and professors who believe that Marxism/Socialism is the preferred economic system over Capitalism for the masses of people.

Since most of these educators have never held a private sector job outside of academia or had to meet a payroll, or make a business decision affecting others, they have filled those heads full of mush, that sit in their classrooms, with the idea that the government knows what's best for all of us and should be the be-all and end-all of all economic decisions. What a crock, and the group most infected with this crap are the Millennial's, who have believed the propaganda put out by those lefty educators. It is a crime that I have to say that, being an ex-teacher myself.

So when you hear some of these leftists promote the theory of man-made global warming (a/k/a climate change) and taxing the rich to excess, it reminds me of what Sir Winston Churchill once described about what Socialism is. He said, “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery”. More prescient words were never spoken describing what the failed economic system of Socialism is all about, and this is what these “Pied Pipers of Nonsense” are trying to shove down our throats.

So yes, the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proposal should be called, the “New Green “Raw” Deal”, for that is what it is pure and simple.
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Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (a/k/a AOC) and her Democrat flunky's, are the gifts to the Republicans that keeps on giving.

To show the naivete of those that embrace the “New Green Deal”, and that they are living on another universe, just look at what they are proposing. How are you going to eliminate all fossil fuels and still have a livable society and still be able to survive? This wacky proposal would eliminate air travel, make every building in the nation energy efficient (using renewable fuel), and even reduce bovine (cattle) flatulence (I kid you not, cow farts). In addition, the proposal includes a provision to give a government “handout” to those unwilling to work.

Unfortunately, this out-of-this-world proposal has a gaggle of ignorant adherents – mostly by the brain-washed Millennial's who have had their brains infused with the socialist nonsense by their leftist teachers and professors. The educational discipline of real “Economics” seems
to be lacking in the halls of academia.

This socialist mindset seems to have a grip on people in the Democrat Party. A recent poll of Democrats showed that 59% of Democrats thought that Socialism is the preferred economic system over Capitalism. I guess they haven't heard of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, most African countries, and the former Soviet Union. The proposals that are elucidated by Bernie Sanders/AOC are right out of the Karl Marx and Saul Alinsky (author of the book “Rules for
Radicals) playbooks.

In addition, according to the proposals regarding the banning of fossil fuels by the year 2030, the plan calls for the phasing out of all nuclear power plants, which even environmentalists have said would increase reliance of fossil fuels.

Also included in the far-out plan, on the social side, AOC's plan calls for guaranteeing jobs “with a family sustaining wage and retirement security”. This includes economic aid for those “unwilling” to work, which might also include illegal aliens.

Along with Representative Aleaxandria Ocasio-Cortez, and her co-sponsor, Representative Ed Markey (D-MA), are some of the announced Democrat candidates for president including Senator Corey Booker (D-NJ), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Senator Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY), ex-Representative Beto O'Rourke (D-TX) and Senator Jay Inslee (D-WA).

The claim by AOC that our country will no longer exist if her foolish plan is not enacted by the year 2030, is too absurd to even take seriously, but these environmental fanatics don't seem to care as their “Holy grail” is the flawed theory of man-made climate change.

So, as a conservative, I hope that these extreme climate dupes will continue on their crusade. It will assure the re-election of President Trump. They will be the gift that keeps on giving.

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann

​Over the past few years we've seen a concerted effort to change our society by the chipping away at the time-honored traditions, that had been handed down to us by our founding fathers since the beginning of our republic over 230 years ago.

Is this change, that is occurring now, for the good or for the bad? To some, our society needs change to keep abreast of the changing views and times, while to others, it is a step back by worsening our manner of dealing with each other. To me, it seems that the “change” people are slowly winning the battle, but, in the end, it is our society that will forever lose the war if they succeed.

This change is not happening overnight, but it is a process of little by little, drip by drip, a change here and a change there, and before we know it, our country will have been “changed” without us even being aware of it and whether or not we like the change or not, but we will
be stuck with it.

Under attack by the “change” people are staples like our Constitution, traditional marriage, drug use, sexual orientation in the military, the intrusion of the government into every aspect of our lives, the dialogue between competing differing political factions which has become very strident and vicious, and the rise of that insidious social disease of “political correctness”. These attacks seem to be emanating mostly from the liberal-left part of the political landscape. This also seems to correspond with the pronouncement by Obama, during the
campaign of 2008, that he was going to bring about the “total transformation of America” whether we wanted it or not, because he and his erstwhile Marxist/Socialist friends (a/k/a Progressives) knew what was best for the country.

As the late former Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once coined the phrase “defining deviancy down” (which signified that the public is being cajoled into tolerating the intolerable), some of our public officials are openly antagonistic toward our countries local law enforcement agencies (mainly the police and I.C.E.), religions (ex. the recent flap over government mandates for contraception and abortion and Christian values as exemplified by V-P Pence), some are against our enforcement of our immigration laws, some want to legalize drugs, and some encourage public disruptions like the Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, ANTIFA mobs, and the mobs in Ferguson, Berkeley and Baltimore. In addition, there is a big push by liberal activist groups to promote the homosexual lifestyle in general, and same sex marriage in particular (sometimes referred to as the “Gay Mafia”). If you voice an opinion against any of those radical changes you will be labeled a racist, a Fascist (Nazi), a homophobe, a bigot, and any other vile epithet these loons will conjure up to try to shut you up. They really, in their heart, want to get rid of the 1st Amendment (along with the 2nd Amendment).

When President Obama was inaugurated in 2009 and during his presidency, he said he was going to be a “uniter” not a “divider”, but ever since that time we, as a nation, have become more polarized on many of the “hot button” issues of our time. Instead of calming the storm of disagreement, he and the anti-Trump fanatics, including the main stream media, have made the atmosphere more hostile and divisive than ever before by stoking the flames of “class warfare” by demonizing the so-called “rich” and people with a conservative philosophy. This was the major theme of the recent election and aftermath by the Democrats and the anti-Trumpers (including some establishment Republicans). The Democrats in both 2016 and 2018 were not able to champion their record of achievements because there wasn't any to speak of, so the policy of the “politics of personal destruction” was instituted to stir the pot of personal turmoil. This was right out of the Saul Alinsky playbook, “Rules for Radicals”, which Obama used as a textbook when he taught constitutional law as a lecturer at the Univ. of Chicago and when Hillary wrote her college thesis on the life of Saul Alinsky. The Democrats seem to have adopted those tactics of Alinsky as they unmercifully savage President Trump on an almost daily basis. Since Obama's 8 years in office and the present “resistance movement” against Trump since his election, the war on our culture has been sped up as more and more radicals have been elected to office under the Democrat banner.

That's why this past election and the presidential election of 2020, is so important to the survival of our culture and of our country. Let's hope we can survive the next two years. We must challenge the radical left policies and tactics of Pelosi and Schumer and the Progressive
movement, and not give up, the future of our children and grandchildren are at stake as well as that of our country.

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann

To listen to the Democrats, the next worse thing to ISIS (and to some, climate change), and the terrorist Muslims in Syria and Iraq, and Afghanistan, are the wealthy individuals in the United States of America. They keep harping on the erroneous fact that that the rich don't pay their “fair share” in paying income taxes and that they are greedy besides, and have become rich on the backs of the poor. Is it true that the rich don't pay their “fair share” of income taxes?

As former Democratic candidate for president, Al Smith ( in 1928) once said, “Let's look at the record”. According to the 2014 (which is still valid today) non-partisan Tax Foundation report, the top 1% earns 19% of the gross national income and pays 38% of all federal taxes. The top 5% earns 34% and pays 59%. The top 10% earns 45% and pays 71%. The bottom 50% pays just 3% of federal tax. If that isn't “soaking the rich”, I don't know what is? Shouldn't everyone have a dog in the fight by paying something to the government?

It is true that during the 8 years of the Obama Administration, the rich had gotten richer and the poor and middle-class had remained stagnant or had lost income, mainly due to the run-up of the stock market, which the rich were heavily invested in. The spending policies and the regulatory policies of the Obama Administration, and the low interest rates of the Federal Reserve, had also contributed to this income gap. The only economically sound way to have stopped this difference in income differential was to get the economy stimulated with policies that would encourage entrepreneurship so that we could produce more jobs, and in return generate more tax revenue to the federal treasury, so that we could reduce the burden of taxation on the upper and middle-class taxpayers. The policies of the Obama Administration did not work for most people, and change was needed (not the hope and change “snake oil” promoted by Obama) to get us back on the right economic track. President Donald Trump, before and after his election, proposed a reform of our tax system to make it easier for people to pay their taxes and to reduce the rates that all taxpayers were paying. Those reforms were passed and signed by Trump, and our economy has responded upward as was predicted. Obama said it wouldn't happen. Egg on his face. 

But, with the inexperience of former President Obama in economics, and his lack of sound fiscal and administrative knowledge, he seemed to have had a “tin ear” as to what was needed to get our economy booming again. The voters had the chance in 2016 to elect a real “money man” of fiscal integrity in Donald Trump, and they voted him president. Much to the chagrin and dismay of the political establishment of both the Democrats and the Republicans. That was the forerunner of the “total resistance”, these past two years, by the Democrats and the “never-Trumpers”.

The semi-Marxist/Socialist plan, espoused by President Obama (and the Democrats), did not get us out of our stagnating economy during his 8 years in office. He preached “income redistribution” by blaming the wealthy of not doing their “fair share” to contribute to the government's revenue. Without the wealthy class paying the vast majority of the income taxes, we'd be in a much greater financial bind than we are in right now, approaching $22 trillion in debt. Even the “evil” Koch Bros., as the Democrats like to call them, have a company that employs over 67,000 workers at better than average wages, yet they are vilified as being un-American by the Democrats, and some have even claimed that they should be jailed for being so “rich”. What, for being successful and wealthy? Are the Democrats that out of touch with reality or what? Even today, the newly elected self-proclaimed socialist, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has proposed raising the income tax rate on wealthy people to 70%, as she follows the dictates of her tutor, Bernie Sanders, another born-again socialist. It looks like both of them missed the Economics 101 class in college.

We need many more Koch Bros., and other millionaires and billionaires, in order to keep our economy moving upward like it is now going. The Democrats and the Liberals should stop demonizing the wealth creators for purely partisan political purposes. They are the job creators. Remember, most all of us were never hired by a poor person. The old adage that “one should not bite the hand that feeds you”, certainly applies in this case.

So, the answer to this editorial's headline is - YES - the rich do pay their “fair share” and we do need more people to get a well paying jobs so that we can continue get out of the economic malaise that the Obama Administration had kept us in for 8 years. We should all strive to become millionaires and billionaires, as it would be good for our country and to the entire world. Instead of “sharing the wealth” by taking from the rich and giving to the poor (the Robin Hood syndrome) in the form of handouts and financial government “goodies”, in order to gain votes by the recipients of those “goodies” at election time, we should be promoting the “sharing the opportunity” for all to succeed and achieve financial success. That's the American way. A hand up instead of a handout is what will make America great again. The economic policies of President Trump, during his first two years in office, the GDP averaged between 3% and 4% as compared with the GDP under Obama, that averaged less than 2% during all of his 8 years. All have benefited under the Trump economic policies and that includes the middle-class as well as the wealthy, who are still paying 70% of all income taxes, while over 45% pay no income taxes at all.

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann