Month: October 2017

One of the many criticisms against former President Barack Obama was the astonishing number of Americans enrolled on food stamps or other forms of welfare assistance while his “non-recovery” economy sputtered along for eight years.

But Breitbart just reported that, within five months of President Donald Trump taking office, food stamp enrollment had dropped significantly, by nearly 1.5 million people or about 3.5 percent.

That revelation came from numbers recently released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture regarding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, as the food stamp program is officially known.

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As of July 2017 — the latest numbers released — the number of Americans enrolled in the program was 41,203,721. That’s down from January 2017, when enrollment was at 42,689,768. In July 2016, the number was reported as 43,334,443, meaning food stamp rolls had dropped by more than 2 million enrollees in one year.

It is worth noting that, while the overall downward trend in enrollment is expected to continue, it is nevertheless thought that there will be a spike in reported enrollment numbers over the course of August and September, owing to a temporary increase in the need for government assistance for some residents of Texas and Florida in the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

To be sure, some of the drop in SNAP enrollment could be attributed to a swiftly improving economy and falling unemployment rate, but it is suspected that Trump’s proposed policies to get Americans off of food stamps may already be having an effect as well.

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Politico reported in May that Trump’s proposed budget called for cutting SNAP funding by roughly 25 percent, along with a strengthening of work requirements for able-bodied recipients and a strong encouragement for states to match their portion of food stamp funding by 20 percent.

Of course, liberals decried the proposal as a heartless gutting of the “social safety net” that millions of Americans rely upon, but that simply isn’t the case.

“We believe in the social safety net,” Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, explained to reporters at the time. “It helps us get to 3 percent (economic) growth, because having a social safety net gives people the confidence to take a gamble and fail and know they won’t be completely wiped out.

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“What we’ve done is not to try and remove the social safety net from folks who need it, but to try to figure out if there are people who don’t need it and get them back into the workforce,” he added.

Many states had already implemented tougher work requirements for food stamp recipients, as well as limits to how long they could continue receiving benefits, and Breitbart reported that some 42 of 50 states had seen a drop in enrollment thus far this year.

The number of enrollees should only continue to drop as Trump’s policies are further implemented and the economy continues to pick up the pace, sparking job and wage growth that will allow many Americans to enter or improve their position in the job market and no longer need government assistance.

H/T Newsmax

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In mid-October in New York City, Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters attended a benefit gala that was hosted in honor of a murdered transgendered teen. When Waters got up to speak, she used the platform as another dig at President Donald Trump, promising the audience that she was going to “take him out.”

Now, Waters’ GOP challenger is calling for her arrest.

During the gala evening at the Ali Forney Center for homeless gay, lesbian and transgenders, Waters stated, “Wow. What a moving evening this is. I am sitting here listening, watching, absorbing, thinking about Ali, even though I never met him.”

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That’s when things took a decidedly bizarre turn. “And with this kind of inspiration, I will go and take Trump out tonight,” Waters added and, not surprisingly, the overwhelmingly liberal crowd cheered right along with her.

But there was one person who wasn’t cheering, Republican challenger to Waters’ seat, Omar Navarro.

Navarro took to Twitter to blast Waters for her thinly veiled threat, writing, “I’m calling for the arrest of Maxine Waters. Let’s get ready for it.” Using the same language Waters often uses when speaking about Trump, “calling for his impeachment,” Navarro hit her right back.

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Only, this time, she could actually be facing time, considering that she did threaten the sitting President of the United States. See the video below:

Navarro was right to call for Waters, arrest after hearing that blatant threat.

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On Sunday, Navarro called for the Secret Service to demand that Waters step down as a result of her threat against Trump’s life. “Secret Service should call for Maxine Waters immediate resignation after these comments,” he tweeted. “We don’t need lip service.” Her mobster mentality has gone too far.

Waters went on CNN on Tuesday to try and walk back her remarks, claiming her statement was no real, physical threat to Trump. In an interview with “New Day,” she told host Chris Cuomo she said she was referring to impeachment, not assassination.

“That’s absolutely ridiculous … that a 79-year-old grandmother who is a congresswoman and who has been in Congress and politics all these years doing any harm,” she said. “The only harm I might be doing to the president is I want him impeached.”

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She might be getting rattled.

Waters has been in hot water for some time now, constantly trying to take President Trump down a peg or two. This time, however, she may have overstepped her boundaries.

It is no secret, that she disapproves of President Trump, but she has stopped short of doing anything other than opening her mouth. It seems she may have forgotten that the Secret Service does not take assassination threats lightly.

Combine what she said on this video to what she has been saying ever since President Trump got elected and you have yourself a very real motive and what could be a very credible threat.

H/T TheBlaze

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A new report commissioned by the Soufan Center has outlined the threat posed by potential Western Islamic State (ISIS) fighters returning to their countries of origin as the caliphate continues to collapse.

The report, titled “Beyond the Caliphate, Foreign Fighters and the Threat of Returnees,” finds that at least 5,600 men, women, and children from 33 countries who traveled to support the Islamic State have now returned to their country of origin, many of which are in the West.

It also estimates that around 30 percent of the approximately 5,000 people who have gone to Syria from countries in the European Union have returned home. Seven of the 129 who went to join ISIS from the United States are now back on home turf, the report adds.

“It’s a hell of a problem,” Richard Barrett, a senior adviser at the Soufan Center told NBC. “It’s very resource-intensive to identify who these people are, track them down and then to do something about them.”

“We have to be cautious of thinking that all [5,600] would go back and be a problem, but I think it’s fair to assume that probably some will be,” he continued.

The report also outlines how, upon their return, Islamic State terrorists continue to pose a serious threat to national security. It states:

If on return they begin again to feel as rootless and lacking in purpose as they did before they left, then they are unlikely to settle back easily into a “normal” life, and as ISIS increases its external campaign, both through action and propaganda, returnees may be particularly vulnerable to contact from people who were part of the network that recruited them, or appeals for help from ex-comrades in arms.

It also details the potential threat posed by women and children, whose commitment to the caliphate and its ideology is difficult to assess:

A subset of returnees that is even harder to quantify, assess and address is the women and children who joined IS but later went home or were captured and await deportation. Without further research, it will be hard to judge the degree of their commitment to IS and their interest in becoming active rather than passive supporters.

“It’s one of the hardest things of all to rehabilitate children who have been recruited by violent extremist groups,” Barrett said. “Once trained, they are incredibly committed and loyal.”

“They will be a lot of mental health issues,” he continued. “And you can’t just put them in a child detention center—you have to treat them. Some will be turned around quite easily and will follow the next ‘mother figure’ that comes along, but others will be unpredictable, to say the least.”

The report’s release coincides with the caliphate’s continued collapse at the hands of the U.S. led coalition. Last week, coalition forces celebrated the group’s expulsion from the Syrian city of Raqqa, while forces in the Philippines also expelled the terror group from their stronghold of Marawi. Islamic State “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had declared Raqqa the capital of the terrorist state in 2014.

Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.

Establishment GOP Senators are trying to assemble a cheap-labor amnesty for young illegals which will not protect Americans workers from unscrupulous employers, nor reduce the huge annual inflow of migrants and workers, according to a report in Politico.

The site reported:

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, has convened a working group on immigration that includes himself and GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and James Lankford of Oklahoma, as well as other lawmakers. Sens. David Perdue of Georgia and Jeff Flake of Arizona also are among the Republicans who have been engaged in the talks, according to sources.

“There’s a solution to be had there,” Cornyn said. “But we just need to get on with it.”

… some outlines of an agreement are becoming clearer. For instance, the senators have all but ruled out including a mandatory workplace verification system known as E-Verify in a final DACA agreement, according to multiple lawmakers engaged in the talks.

E-Verify is the government database which companies can use to verify the legality of a job-applicant. Immigration reformers say the job-magnet for illegals must be turned off by requiring all employers use the E-verify system for all job applicants.

w/o E-Verify, there is little pretense that deal makers see controlling illegal employment/immigration as a goal. https://t.co/dlzRIERIZw

— Roy Beck (@RoyBeck_NUSA) October 24, 2017

The Senators are considering vague “beefed-up border security provisions,” but the article did not say if the GOP Senators plan to support the construction of the border wall.

The GOP group is responding to pressure from Democrats and business groups who want the federal government to extend President Barack Obama’s so-called “DACA” amnesty for the 700,000 to 3 million younger illegals. Democrats and business groups also want to block an immigration reform which would reduce the number of immigrants and drive up Americans’ wages.

Instead of merely blocking the latest amnesty threat, immigration reformers are working President Donald Trump to win a major reform that will reduce the annual number of immigrants, and so help raise wages, high-tech investment, and productivity.

Trump has begun by winding down Obama’s DACA amnesty, and so the 690,000 DACA beneficiaries will start losing their work-permits March 5. The gradual loss of the illegal-immigrant workforce will open up hundreds of thousands of jobs for Americans, and force companies to compete for workers by offering higher pay.

On October 8, Trump also released his popular principles for vetting any congressional amnesty deal. According to the letter which Trump sent to leaders in Congress:

As President, I took an oath to uphold the Constitution, which makes clear that all legislative powers are vested in the Congress, not the President.

I, therefore, tasked the relevant executive departments and agencies to conduct a bottom-up review of all immigration policies to determine what legislative reforms are essential for America’s economic and national security.  Rather than asking what policies are supported by special interests, we asked America’s law enforcement professionals to identify reforms that are vital to protect the national interest.  In response, they identified dangerous loopholes, outdated laws, and easily exploited vulnerabilities in our immigration system – current policies that are harming our country and our communities.

I have enclosed the detailed findings of this effort.  These findings outline reforms that must be included as part of any legislation addressing the status of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients.  Without these reforms, illegal immigration and chain migration, which severely and unfairly burden American workers and taxpayers, will continue without end.

Immigration reform must create more jobs, higher wages, and greater security for Americans — now and for future generations.  The reforms outlined in the enclosure are necessary to ensure prosperity, opportunity, and safety for every member of our national family.

The only pro-American members of Grassley’s group are Grassley and Perdue.

Grassley is a strong critic of the many federal programs which allow companies to import white-collar and blue-collar workers for jobs in the United States. The programs include the H-1B, L-1, OPT, TN, H-2A, H-2B, which collectively import roughly 700,000 workers per year.

Perdue is promoting his wage-boosting RAISE Act. His poll-tested RAISE Act would help Americans by focusing on the core issue — the number of migrants who enter the country every year to compete against Americans for decent wages. The RAISE Act, which is co-sponsored by Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, would reduce immigration numbers by reducing the huge chain-immigration inflow.

Politico, however, suggests his reforms are opposed by the other Senators, saying:

Ideas that do remain in contention among this circle of Republicans include beefed-up border security provisions, limiting some chain migration and measures that one senator described as a “down payment” on shifting the U.S. immigration laws into a merit-based system, according to GOP senators.

Perdue’s focus on number and chain-migration is likely unpopular among the remaining Senators in Grassley’s group, all of whom are pro-amnesty and pro-cheap labor, even though that combination is very unpopular among voters.

For example, Tillis is an aggressive advocate for business’ greater use of cheap-labor migrants and has recruited Lankford to push his SUCCEED amnesty for at least 2.5 million illegals.

Lankford has damaged his own standing with awkward statements, including his declaration that the American economy gains when migrants compete against Americans for good jobs:

The job issue is an interesting issue, because those individuals are already in the job market. Many of these DACA students are actually DACA young adults, they already have access to the job market right now because they’ve been given deferred action. So they are in higher education, they are in the job market, they are currently a part of our economy, currently. That continual competition in our economy doesn’t hurt us, that continues to help us. It actually hurts us to put those individuals out of the economy.

The Tillis-Lankford bill does include a token curb on chain migration by delaying naturalization for 15 years. Democrats, however, will work to reduce the delay and are already pushing the Dream Act, which maximizes chain-migration by allowing naturalization in just three years for illegals who are married to citizens.

Flake has developed his own amnesty bill, but his clout will decline because he announced Wednesday that he will retire from the Senate amid growing home-state opposition to his pro-migrant policies.

Graham is the leading GOP advocates for amnesty and he jump-started the 2013 “Gang of Eight” amnesty to deliver low-wage workers to his home state’s tourism, hospitality, and agriculture industries. Once a DACA amnesty is passed, “we’re going to increase legal immigration so employers don’t have to cheat” by hiring illegals, he said in October 2017. The Politico article notes that Graham wants the nation’s immigration system to help companies, not to help raise Americans’ wages.

Cornyn is pushing a weak border security bill while opposing the E-Verify bill that is bitterly opposed by the farming industry. The food industry is facing tough competition from overseas — and future competition from urban “vertical farm” companies. So it is pushing for cheap immigrant labor via a new H-2C guest worker program instead of investing in labor-saving-productivity boosting, American-made, farm machinery.

According to Politico:

“There are large segments of some important sectors, like agriculture, where we need to do E-Verify with [another] immigration reform to make sure that there’s an adequate legal workforce,” Cornyn said. “And if we start adding too much stuff to the DACA-border security approach, then we get back into comprehensive immigration reform and nothing happens.”

Pro-American reformers worry that Cornyn’s border bill could serve as a fake-tough security measure to muffle public opposition to an amnesty.

The Politico article does not discuss the Democrats’ risky political strategy of favoring migrants over Americans. In 2014, that pro-migrant, pro-business policy helped the Democrats lose nine seats in the Senate.

Four million Americans turn 18 each year and begin looking for good jobs in the free market.

But the federal government inflates the supply of new labor by annually accepting 1 million new legal immigrants, by providing almost 2 million work-permits to foreigners, by providing work-visas to roughly 700,000 temporary workers and doing little to block the employment of roughly 8 million illegal immigrants.

The Washington-imposed economic policy of mass-immigration floods the market with foreign labor, spikes profits and Wall Street values by cutting salaries for manual and skilled labor offered by blue-collar and white-collar employees. It also drives up real estate prices, widens wealth-gaps, reduces high-tech investment, increases state and local tax burdens, hurts kids’ schools and college education, pushes Americans away from high-tech careers, and sidelines at least 5 million marginalized Americans and their families, including many who are now struggling with opioid addictions.

The cheap-labor policy has also reduced investment and job creation in many interior states because the coastal cities have a surplus of imported labor. For example, almost 27 percent of zip codes in Missouri had fewer jobs or businesses in 2015 than in 2000, according to a new report by the Economic Innovation Group. In Kansas, almost 29 percent of zip codes had fewer jobs and businesses in 2015 compared to 2000, which was a two-decade period of massive cheap-labor immigration.

Americans tell pollsters that they strongly oppose amnesties and cheap-labor immigration, even as most Americans also want to favor legal immigrants, and many sympathize with illegals.

Because of the successful cheap-labor strategy, wages for men have remained flat since 1973, and a growing percentage of the nation’s annual income is shifting to investors and away from employees.

 

 

 

 

 

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan mourned Sen. Jeff Flake’s (R-AZ) decision not to seek re-election, describing his retirement as a loss for “the greater cause of conservatism.”

“I’m saddened Congress is losing my friend Jeff Flake. Throughout his career in public service, Jeff has been a champion of constitutional, limited government and a trailblazer for fiscal restraint,” Ryan said in a statement.

“He as much as anyone helped to end a corrosive earmarking process that enabled runaway spending. Jeff’s retirement is a loss to the Senate and the greater cause of conservatism. I wish him well as he continues to advocate for our principles outside of government.”

Ryan and Flake were natural allies in Congress, both championing the causes of unrestrained free trade and presiding over unprecedented levels of illegal immigration, as well as critics of the Trump agenda.

Flake said in announcing his retirement:

It is clear at this moment that a traditional conservative, who believes in limited government and free markets, devoted to free trade, pro-immigration, has a narrower and narrower path to nomination in the Republican party. I rise today with no small measure of regret. Regret because of the state of our disunion, regret because of the disrepair and destructiveness of our politics.”

Flake was part of the “Gang of Eight” that proposed the 2013 immigration bill seeking to provide amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, alongside the likes of Sens. Marco Rubio, John McCain, and Lindsey Graham.

“It’s very hard for me to add to the eloquence of my dear friend from Arizona,” McCain said after the decision was announced. “But I do want to say that it has been one of the great honors of my life to serve with a man of integrity, honor, decency, and commitment to not only Arizona but to the United States of America.”

Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.