A perfect storm is brewing in the Southern Hemisphere and making its way north to the United States.
Heroin, fentanyl, and other opioids already pour through America’s southern border and this infiltration is one of three elements that will feed the perfect storm. Every day, 115 Americans die from opioid overdoses and tainted drugs passing through our southern border.
The second element is MS-13, the brutal gang that is a drug courier of choice to the Mexican drug cartels for distribution of these drugs within the United States.
When these two elements are mixed with the third element – the caravan of 7,000 to 10,000 people, mostly men, seeking to break through our southern border – you complete a toxic combination leading to a perfect storm. MS-13 gang members have already been found in the mass migration (although some have claimed they are no longer affiliated with the gang). It is not hard to spot them with their MS-13 tattoos. It is only a small leap in logic that MS-13 will be using the caravan as a cover to increase their drug and human trafficking operations.
This combination magnifies the threat to America’s national security. A border wall is needed more than ever. This must not be the partisan issue that some have made of it. Saving our children’s lives from the scourge of deadly drugs is not a partisan issue. Imagine one airliner crashing every day and killing 115 passengers. This would be a national emergency that would eclipse partisanship. The death of 115 Americans by overdose every day should also eclipse partisanship.
As Marlon Miller of the Department of Homeland Security explained to the House Committee on Homeland Security on June 19, “[a] significant quantity of bulk Mexico-sourced heroin, and Chinese-sourced fentanyl transiting through Mexico, . . . is smuggled across the shared border with Mexico via the land border ports of entry.”
According to The San Diego Union-Tribune, in March 2017, 18 kilograms of fentanyl hidden in a semi-truck load of bell peppers was seized at a checkpoint in Sonora, California. Later that year, another semi-truck traveling to Tijuana from Mexico City was seized carrying 30,000 fentanyl-laced pills and 63 kilos of powder containing the drug. U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 355 kilograms of fentanyl in fiscal year 2017 at San Diego ports of entry alone. In April of this year, Nebraska state troopers seized 118 pounds of fentanyl, enough to kill more than 26 million people, during a routine traffic stop.
To have lasting effects against the opioid crisis, we must cut off the supply chain — and this means securing our borders. But it’s not the drugs alone we need to stop. The criminals who control this drug trade are some of the worst, most brutal gangsters ever to come into our country. MS-13 and drug cartels are made up of violent criminals who are not striving to achieve the American dream — they are trying to kill it. It is widely reported that members of these gangs rape, behead, and bury their victims. These gangs move into a neighborhood or city and take control. They get their victims hooked on drugs and keep them coming back for more.
MS-13 has roughly 10,000 members in at least 42 states and the District of Columbia, according to the most up-to-date FBI estimates. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has even asked for the gang to be labelled a terrorist group, with polling suggesting that the American public supports this reclassification.
Of course, securing the border, alone, will not solve the opioid crisis. This is why President Trump recently took an important step by signing the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act. This is a bipartisan piece of legislation that passed the Senate 99-1. It takes a multi-faceted approach that is necessary for solving this crisis, one that deals with treatment and recovery, interdiction, and deterrence.
Yet, securing our border remains the biggest step we can take to ensure that illicit opioids never enter our communities in the first place. I am not talking about completely shutting down immigration for all refugees, migrant workers, and other people who try to immigrate legally. In fact, I have championed legislation to welcome such hardworking and law-abiding immigrants. I am talking about keeping out gang members and criminals who want to destroy lives and entire communities. If we are serious about this issue, we need to stop talking about abolishing ICE and start securing the border.
We need to stop the caravan. We need to build the wall.
The natural progression of a society with legalized baby murder and legalized euthanasia of the elderly and infirmed is the legalization of child murder. And so the Toronto Sick Kids hospital's recent policy paper on administering assisted death to children without parental consent has drawn little attention.
The September 21 paper, written by doctors at Sick Kids, along with administrators and medical ethicists, was published in the British Medical Journal's J Med Ethics and backed by the University of Toronto's Joint Centre for Bioethics. The paper appeared just three months before the Canadian Council of Academies is due to report to Parliament on the medical consensus of extending voluntary euthanasia to children under 18, psychiatric patients and patients who have expressed a preference for dying before they were rendered incapable by Alzheimer's or some other disease. The assisted murder of people falling in these categories is currently prohibited by Canadian law.
The paper's authors argue there is no meaningful ethical distinction between a patient choosing to refuse burdensome treatment and accepting an inevitable death versus patients who choose to die by chemical injection before the disease brings on death. And since Ontario law does not require parents to be involved in a "capable minor's" decision to refuse further treatment, there is no legal reason to include parents in decisions about "assisted death."
In other words, if the proposal is adopted physicians will be legally able to kill minor children at the child's request without consultation with parents; kill mentally ill people — who lack the capacity for rational thought; and kill people who may or may not one day develop an illness. That ultimately transcends into physicians having the license to kill anyone for any reason. So much for the Hippocratic Oath — first, do no harm.
The abortion crowd and their defenders and proponents justify the murders of the soon-to-be-born humans by claiming they are just "tissues" like cancers or bad kidneys or are "parasitic growths" that need to be excised from the woman's body. But these "tissues" are not at all like cancers or bad kidneys because they contain hearts, livers, kidneys, brains, etc., and their own DNA. This moral relativism, of course, provides cover for the fact that a cancer or kidney or parasite will never be able to survive outside the body, but the human baby is a unique person who will be able to in a matter of weeks.
The abortion crowd and their defenders and proponents lament that the baby may be "defective" or born to poor or abusive parents, or it won't be properly cared for or properly educated (feeble-minded) and would, therefore, be a "drain on society" or possibly produce more progeny that would likewise be feeble-minded, so it would be "better off" if they were sucked out of the womb, chopped up, placed in red bags and incinerated. After all, who could couch such a thing as a youngster being born to "inferiors" or growing up in the company of "inferiors" and possibly producing more "inferior" offspring. Besides, those parts could better serve humanity through sacrificing their lives for research.
The devaluation of life is already public policy, as we see in the widespread acceptance of abortion. It’s certainly not surprising that a people who look on removing the soon-to-be-born from the womb as no more drastic than removing a decaying tooth from a mouth would come to believe that humans are expendable when they become inconvenient or sick; especially when it is supported by millions of dollars from the federal treasury.
This mindset is the same one of the progressive left in the early 20th century that gave us American and Nazi eugenicists. In 1935, the American Eugenics Society's dogma held that eugenics was a "racial preventive medicine" that sought to remove "degenerates" that were an "insidious disease" affecting the societal body in a similar manner to a cancer in the human body.
They justified their actions by dehumanizing their prey. Modern day eugenicists have just removed the racial component and decided that anyone who is unwanted or ill should be disposed of as societal preventive medicine.
In 2005 the Dutch became the first to permit euthanasia and propose guidelines for mercy killings of terminally ill newborns. The murder is carried out by administering a lethal dose of sedatives. We are told that Iceland has "basically eradicated, almost, Down syndrome." That's not true. But what is true is that in Iceland babies with chromosome abnormalities are eliminated in the womb because "Life isn't black and white. Life is grey."
Great Britain had the recent well-publicized state murders of Charlie Gard andAlfie Evans and in the U.S. we had Terri Schiavo — not a minor, but someone who was unable to make decisions for herself.
Medical ethicists — an apparent oxymoron — have long claimed that healthcare should be denied to those who aren't beneficial to society.
In his 1998 book, "The Ends of Human Life: Medical Ethics in a Liberal Polity," Ezekiel Emanuel, healthcare policy advisor under President Obama and brother of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, we find this passage:
People aspire to be members of a community by participating in its political deliberations. Through such participation, citizens can realize political autonomy, that is, living under conditions they legislate. They can also realize certain capacities, such as the capacity for responsibility and moral reflection. And finally, through their participation in communal deliberations citizens become bound to the larger community, seeing their own interests in its common interest. In this way they transcend their individual existence to become part of an ongoing community with a posterity… Similarly, in the area of selecting medical interventions, the deliberative conception suggests that certain capacities are necessary for a worthy and meaningful life. Without the potential capacities for engaging in deliberations, one is not a full person."
In other words, if grandma had a stroke and can't speak, or your brother is born mentally handicapped or is brain damaged from an accident, or a toddler has leukemia, then those people aren't "full persons," according to Emanuel. They don't have the potential to participate in political discussions, and participation in the transcendent community — and only that participation — is what grants complete personhood.
We have fallen into the dishonoring and demeaning state of moral or value relativism. We no longer know right from wrong. Nothing is black and white. Everything is a shade of gray — as the Icelandic abortion doctor says — which is to say that anything goes.
We are not-so-subtly being taught that sacrificing our children is honorable, desirable and even glorious and a service to our fellow man as long as it's carried out under the benevolence of the medical system or on behalf of the state.
We glorify our military "heroes" — especially in death — as those people we designate (volunteer) as sacrificial lambs to advance the empire. The people are under the misguided notion that they are thanking these soldiers for the service when, in reality, the people are being manipulated to accept that self-sacrifice is honorable and some lives must be sacrificed — at the direction of the elites — for wars and "police actions" that advance the "common good" — with common good being whatever the elites say it is. When we accept that sacrificing our military sons and daughters is honorable, extending this notion to everyone else is easy.
We condemn the eugenicists of the early 20th century, and rightly so. But today's eugenicists are considered enlightened forward thinkers and even patriots.
Dying under the pretense of sickness care is more benevolent than dying by a firing squad. Sickness care under all pretenses is benevolent. It is not possible for many Americans to identify sickness care with death.
Firing squads and death chambers cost the system money. On the other hand, imagine how much the medical system stands to profit from "sickness care" in America.
Arranging euthanasia by "mercy killing" and/or "sickness care" is far more acceptable and even benevolent. It's a simple trick of confusing cause and effect.
President Donald Trump speaks to the Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons annual meeting at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington Thursday.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
“Trump’s successes in reducing the cost of taxes and regulations, rebuilding our military, avoiding wars of choice and changing the courts rival those of all previous Republican presidents,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.
“Trump has an advantage over Ronald Reagan: he has a Reagan Republican House and Senate while Reagan had a [Democratic Speaker] Tip O’Neill House and a pre-Reagan Republican Senate. Reagan and [former GOP Speaker] Newt Gingrich were the ice breakers that allowed Trump’s victories to grow in number and significance,” he added.
Unlike the Year One list which included many proposals and orders still to be acted on, the new collection includes dozens of actions already in place, signed legislation and enforced executive orders.
For example, while the Year One list bragged about the administration’s efforts to rewrite the much-maligned NAFTA trade deal with Canada and Mexico, the Year Two list said, “Negotiated an historic U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement to replace NAFTA.”
In December, Secrets reported on the first list of White House accomplishments.
And shockingly the NAFTA achievement is presented as a sidebar to the larger achievement that reads, “President Trump is negotiating and renegotiating better trade deals, achieving free, fair, and reciprocal trade for the United States.” Under that umbrella are eight trade deals cut with Japan, South Korea, Europe and China.
“President Trump is a truly unique leader in American history. He’s a kid from Queens who became an international business leader and made billions by getting things when no one said he could,” said Trump’s 2016 campaign pollster John McLaughlin.
“They told him he couldn’t be president and beat the establishment and he did. For two years the establishment is telling him he can’t do things in Washington and he’s succeeding in spite of them. He never retreats. He doesn’t back up. He’s relentless. He just wins,” he added.
Comparing the two years shows that the latest has an expanded group of economic achievements while the pro-life category was folded into the health care section.
Along the way, there have been some disappointments such as failing to replace Obamacare, fund a big infrastructure plan and build the border wall.
But the White House believes that despite a lack of media coverage of his accomplishments, supporters know about them and will head to the voting polls to help the GOP maintain control of the House and keep the president on what CNN dubbed a “winning streak.”
In the Washington Post Friday, former Bush speechwriter and columnist Marc Thiessen agreed, and said that Trump has proven to be successful at keeping his campaign promises. He wrote, “The fact is, in his first two years, Trump has compiled a remarkable record of presidential promise-keeping.”
THE LIST
Economic Growth
4.2 percent growth in the second quarter of 2018.
For the first time in more than a decade, growth is projected to exceed 3 percent over the calendar year.
Jobs
4 million new jobs have been created since the election, and more than 3.5 million since Trump took office.
More Americans are employed now than ever before in our history.
Jobless claims at lowest level in nearly five decades.
The economy has achieved the longest positive job-growth streak on record.
Job openings are at an all-time high and outnumber job seekers for the first time on record.
Unemployment claims at 50 year low
African-American, Hispanic, and Asian-American unemployment rates have all recently reached record lows.
--African-American unemployment hit a record low of 5.9 percent in May 2018. --Hispanic unemployment at 4.5 percent. --Asian-American unemployment at record low of 2 percent.
Women’s unemployment recently at lowest rate in nearly 65 years.
--Female unemployment dropped to 3.6 percent in May 2018, the lowest since October 1953.
Youth unemployment recently reached its lowest level in more than 50 years.
--July 2018’s youth unemployment rate of 9.2 percent was the lowest since July 1966.
Veterans’ unemployment recently hit its lowest level in nearly two decades.
--July 2018’s veterans’ unemployment rate of 3.0 percent matched the lowest rate since May 2001.
Unemployment rate for Americans without a high school diploma recently reached a record low.
Rate for disabled Americans recently hit a record low.
Blue-collar jobs recently grew at the fastest rate in more than three decades.
Poll found that 85 percent of blue-collar workers believe their lives are headed “in the right direction.”
--68 percent reported receiving a pay increase in the past year.
Last year, job satisfaction among American workers hit its highest level since 2005.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans rate now as a good time to find a quality job.
--Optimism about the availability of good jobs has grown by 25 percent.
Added more than 400,000 manufacturing jobs since the election.
--Manufacturing employment is growing at its fastest pace in more than two decades.
100,000 new jobs supporting the production & transport of oil & natural gas.
American Income
Median household income rose to $61,372 in 2017, a post-recession high.
Wages up in August by their fastest rate since June 2009.
Paychecks rose by 3.3 percent between 2016 and 2017, the most in a decade.
Council of Economic Advisers found that real wage compensation has grown by 1.4 percent over the past year.
Some 3.9 million Americans off food stamps since the election.
Median income for Hispanic-Americans rose by 3.7 percent and surpassed $50,000 for the first time ever in history.
--Home-ownership among Hispanics is at the highest rate in nearly a decade.
Poverty rates for African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans have reached their lowest levels ever recorded.
American Optimism
Small business optimism has hit historic highs.
--NFIB’s small business optimism index broke a 35 year-old record in August. --SurveyMonkey/CNBC’s small business confidence survey for Q3 of 2018 matched its all-time high.
Manufacturers are more confident than ever.
--95 percent of U.S. manufacturers are optimistic about the future, the highest ever.
Consumer confidence is at an 18-year high.
12 percent of Americans rate the economy as the most significant problem facing our country, the lowest level on record.
Confidence in the economy is near a two-decade high, with 51 percent rating the economy as good or excellent.
American Business
Investment is flooding back into the United States due to the tax cuts.
--Over $450 billion dollars has already poured back into the U.S., including more than $300 billion in the first quarter of 2018.
Retail sales have surged. Commerce Department figures from August show that retail sales increased 0.5 percent in July 2018, an increase of 6.4 percent from July 2017.
ISM’s index of manufacturing scored its highest reading in 14 years.
Worker productivity is the highest it has been in more than three years.
Steel and aluminum producers are re-opening.
Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and NASDAQ have all notched record highs.
--Dow hit record highs 70 times in 2017 alone, the most ever recorded in one year. Deregulation
Achieved massive deregulation at a rapid pace, completing 22 deregulatory actions to every one regulatory action during his first year in office.
Signed legislation to roll back costly and harmful provisions of Dodd-Frank, providing relief to credit unions, and community and regional banks.
Federal agencies achieved more than $8 billion in lifetime net regulatory cost savings.
Rolled back Obama’s burdensome Waters of the U.S. rule.
Used the Congressional Review Act to repeal regulations more times than in history.
Tax Cuts
Biggest tax cuts and reforms in American history by signing the Tax Cuts and Jobs act into law.
--Provided more than $5.5 trillion in gross tax cuts, nearly 60 percent of which will go to families. --Increased the exemption for the death tax to help save Family Farms & Small Business. --Nearly doubled the standard deduction for individuals and families. --Enabled vast majority of American families will be able to file their taxes on a single page by claiming the standard deduction. --Doubled the child tax credit to help lessen the financial burden of raising a family. --Lowered America’s corporate tax rate from the highest in the developed world to allow American businesses to compete and win. --Small businesses can now deduct 20 percent of their business income. --Cut dozens of special interest tax breaks and closed loopholes for the wealthy.
9 in 10 American workers are expected see an increase in their paychecks thanks to the tax cuts, according to the Treasury Department.
More than 6 million of American workers have received wage increases, bonuses, and increased benefits thanks to tax cuts.
Over 100 utility companies have lowered electric, gas, or water rates thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Ernst & Young found 89 percent of companies planned to increase worker compensation thanks to the Trump tax cuts.
Established opportunity zones to spur investment in left behind communities.
Worker Development
Established a National Council for the American Worker to develop a national strategy for training and retraining America’s workers for high-demand industries.
Employers have signed Trump’s “Pledge to America’s Workers,” committing to train or retrain more than 4.2 million workers and students.
Signed the first Perkins CTE reauthorization since 2006, authorizing more than $1 billion for states each year to fund vocational and career education programs.
Executive order expanding apprenticeship opportunities for students and workers.
Domestic Infrastructure
Proposed infrastructure plan would utilize $200 billion in Federal funds to spur at least $1.5 trillion in infrastructure investment across the country.
Executive order expediting environmental reviews and approvals for high priority infrastructure projects.
Federal agencies have signed the One Federal Decision Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) streamlining the federal permitting process for infrastructure projects.
Rural prosperity task force and signed an executive order to help expand broadband access in rural areas.
Health Care
Signed an executive order to help minimize the financial burden felt by American households Signed legislation to improve the National Suicide Hotline.
Signed the most comprehensive childhood cancer legislation ever into law, which will advance childhood cancer research and improve treatments.
Signed Right-to-Try legislation, expanding health care options for terminally ill patients.
Enacted changes to the Medicare 340B program, saving seniors an estimated $320 million on drugs in 2018 alone.
FDA set a new record for generic drug approvals in 2017, saving consumers nearly $9 billion.
Released a blueprint to drive down drug prices for American patients, leading multiple major drug companies to announce they will freeze or reverse price increases.
Expanded short-term, limited-duration health plans.
Let more employers to form Association Health Plans, enabling more small businesses to join together and affordably provide health insurance to their employees.
Signed legislation repealing Obamacare’s Independent Payment Advisory Board, also known as the “death panels.”
USDA invested more than $1 billion in rural health care in 2017, improving access to health care for 2.5 million people in rural communities across 41 states
Proposed Title X rule to help ensure taxpayers do not fund the abortion industry in violation of the law.
Reinstated and expanded the Mexico City Policy to keep foreign aid from supporting the global abortion industry.
HHS formed a new division over protecting the rights of conscience and religious freedom.
Overturned Obama administration’s midnight regulation prohibiting states from defunding certain abortion facilities.
Signed executive order to help ensure that religious organizations are not forced to choose between violating their religious beliefs by complying with Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate or shutting their doors.
Combating Opioids
Chaired meeting the 73rd General Session of the United Nations discussing the worldwide drug problem with international leaders.
Initiative to Stop Opioid Abuse and Reduce Drug Supply and Demand, introducing new measures to keep dangerous drugs out of our communities.
$6 billion in new funding to fight the opioid epidemic.
DEA conducted a surge in April 2018 that arrested 28 medical professions and revoked 147 registrations for prescribing too many opioids.
Brought the “Prescribed to Death” memorial to President’s Park near the White House, helping raise awareness about the human toll of the opioid crisis.
Helped reduce high-dose opioid prescriptions by 16 percent in 2017.
Opioid Summit on the administration-wide efforts to combat the opioid crisis.
Launched a national public awareness campaign about the dangers of opioid addiction.
Created a Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis which recommended a number of pathways to tackle the opioid crisis.
Led two National Prescription Drug Take Back Days in 2017 and 2018, collecting a record number of expired and unneeded prescription drugs each time.
$485 million targeted grants in FY 2017 to help areas hit hardest by the opioid crisis.
Signed INTERDICT Act, strengthening efforts to detect and intercept synthetic opioids before they reach our communities.
DOJ secured its first-ever indictments against Chinese fentanyl manufacturers.
Declared the opioid crisis a Nationwide Public Health Emergency in October 2017.
Law and order
More U.S. Circuit Court judges confirmed in the first year in office than ever.
Confirmed more than two dozen U. S. Circuit Court judges.
Followed through on the promise to nominate judges to the Supreme Court who will adhere to the Constitution.
--Nominated and confirmed Justice Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
Signed an executive order directing the Attorney General to develop a strategy to more effectively prosecute people who commit crimes against law enforcement officers.
Launched an evaluation of grant programs to make sure they prioritize the protection and safety of law enforcement officers.
Established a task force to reduce crime and restore public safety in communities across Signed an executive order to focus more federal resources on dismantling transnational criminal organizations such as drug cartels.
Signed an executive order to focus more federal resources on dismantling transnational criminal organizations such as drug cartels.
Violent crime decreased in 2017 according to FBI statistics.
$137 million in grants through the COPS Hiring Program to preserve jobs, increase community policing capacities, and support crime prevention efforts.
Enhanced and updated the Project Safe Neighborhoods to help reduce violent crime.
Signed legislation making it easier to target websites that enable sex trafficking and strengthened penalties for people who promote or facilitate prostitution.
Created an interagency task force working around the clock to prosecute traffickers, protect victims, and prevent human trafficking.
Conducted Operation Cross Country XI to combat human trafficking, rescuing 84 children and arresting 120 human traffickers.
Encouraged federal prosecutors to use the death penalty when possible in the fight against the trafficking of deadly drugs.
New rule effectively banning bump stock sales in the United States.
Border Security and Immigration
Secured $1.6 billion for border wall construction in the March 2018 omnibus bill.
Construction of a 14-mile section of border wall began near San Diego.
Worked to protect American communities from the threat posed by the vile MS-13 gang.
--ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations division arrested 796 MS-13 members and associates in FY 2017, an 83 percent increase from the prior year. --Justice worked with partners in Central America to secure criminal charges against more than 4,000 MS-13 members. --Border Patrol agents arrested 228 illegal aliens affiliated with MS-13 in FY 2017.
Fighting to stop the scourge of illegal drugs at our border.
--ICE HSI seized more than 980,000 pounds of narcotics in FY 2017, including 2,370 pounds of fentanyl and 6,967 pounds of heroin. --ICE HSI dedicated nearly 630,000 investigative hours towards halting the illegal import of fentanyl. --ICE HSI made 11,691 narcotics-related arrests in FY 2017. --Stop Opioid Abuse and Reduce Drug Supply and Demand introduced new measures to keep dangerous drugs out the United States. --Signed the INTERDICT Act into law, enhancing efforts to detect and intercept synthetic opioids. --DOJ secured its first-ever indictments against Chinese fentanyl manufacturers. --DOJ launched their Joint Criminal Opioid Darknet Enforcement (J-CODE) team, aimed at disrupting online illicit opioid sales.
Released an immigration framework that includes the resources required to secure our borders and close legal loopholes, and repeatedly called on Congress to fix our broken immigration laws.
Authorized the deployment of the National Guard to help secure the border.
Enhanced vetting of individuals entering the U.S. from countries that don’t meet security standards, helping to ensure individuals who pose a threat to our country are identified before they enter.
--These procedures were upheld in a June 2018 Supreme Court hearing.
ICE removed over 226,000 illegal aliens from the United States in 2017.
--ICE rescued or identified over 500 human trafficking victims and over 900 child exploitation victims in 2017 alone.
In 2017, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) arrested more than 127,000 aliens with criminal convictions or charges, responsible for:
--Over 76,000 with dangerous drug offenses. --More than 48,000 with assault offenses. --More than 11,000 with weapons offenses. --More than 5,000 with sexual assault offenses. --More than 2,000 with kidnapping offenses. --Over 1,800 with homicide offenses.
Created the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) Office in order to support the victims and families affected by illegal alien crime.
More than doubled the number of counties participating in the 287(g) program, which allows jails to detain criminal aliens until they are transferred to ICE custody.
TRADE
Negotiating and renegotiating better trade deals, achieving free, fair, and reciprocal trade for the United States.
--Agreed to work with the European Union towards zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, and zero subsides. --Deal with the European Union to increase U.S. energy exports to Europe. --Litigated multiple WTO disputes targeting unfair trade practices and upholding our right to enact fair trade laws. --Finalized a revised trade agreement with South Korea, which includes provisions to increase American automobile exports. --Negotiated an historic U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement to replace NAFTA. --Agreement to begin trade negotiations for a U.S.-Japan trade agreement. --Secured $250 billion in new trade and investment deals in China and $12 billion in Vietnam. --Established a Trade and Investment Working Group with the United Kingdom, laying the groundwork for post-Brexit trade.
Enacted steel and aluminum tariffs to protect our vital steel and aluminum producers and strengthen our national security.
Conducted 82 anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations in 2017 alone.
Confronting China’s unfair trade practices after years of Washington looking the other way.
--25 percent tariff on $50 billion of goods imported from China and later imposed an additional 10% tariff on $200 billion of Chinese goods. --Conducted an investigation into Chinese forced technology transfers, unfair licensing practices, and intellectual property theft. --Imposed safeguard tariffs to protect domestic washing machines and solar products manufacturers hurt by China’s trade policies.
Withdrew from the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Secured access to new markets for America’s farmers.
--Recent deal with Mexico included new improvements enabling food and agriculture to trade more fairly. --Recent agreement with the E.U. will reduce barriers and increase trade of American soybeans to Europe. --Won a WTO dispute regarding Indonesia’s unfair restriction of U.S. agricultural exports. --Defended American Tuna fisherman and packagers before the WTO --Opened up Argentina to American pork experts for the first time in a quarter-century --American beef exports have returned to china for the first time in more than a decade.
OK’d up to $12 billion in aid for farmers affected by unfair trade retaliation.
Energy
Presidential Memorandum to clear roadblocks to construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Presidential Memorandum declaring that the Dakota Access Pipeline serves the national interest and initiating the process to complete construction.
Opened up the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to energy exploration.
Coal exports up over 60 percent in 2017.
Rolled back the “stream protection rule” to prevent it from harming America’s coal industry.
Cancelled Obama’s anti-coal Clean Power Plan and proposed the Affordable Clean Energy Rule as a replacement.
Withdrew from the job-killing Paris climate agreement, which would have cost the U.S. nearly $3 trillion and led to 6.5 million fewer industrial sector jobs by 2040.
U.S. oil production has achieved its highest level in American history
United States is now the largest crude oil producer in the world.
U.S. has become a net natural gas exporter for the first time in six decades.
Action to expedite the identification and extraction of critical minerals that are vital to the nation’s security and economic prosperity.
Took action to reform National Ambient Air Quality Standards, benefitting American manufacturers.
Rescinded Obama’s hydraulic fracturing rule, which was expected to cost the industry $32 million per year.
Proposed an expansion of offshore drilling as part of an all-of-the above energy strategy.
--Held a lease sale for offshore oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico in August 2018.
Got EU to increase its imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States.
Issued permits for the New Burgos Pipeline that will cross the U.S.-Mexico border.
Foreign Policy
Moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
Withdrew from Iran deal and immediately began the process of re-imposing sanctions that had been lifted or waived.
--Treasury has issued sanctions targeting Iranian activities and entities, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force. --Since enacting sanctions, Iran’s crude exports have fallen off, the value of Iran’s currency has plummeted, and international companies have pulled out of the country. --All nuclear-related sanctions will be back in full force by early November 2018.
Historic summit with North Korean President Kim Jong-Un, bringing beginnings of peace and denuclearization to the Korean Peninsula.
--The two leaders have exchanged letters and high-level officials from both sides have met resulting in tremendous progress. --North Korea has halted nuclear and missile tests. --Negotiated the return of the remains of missing-in-action soldiers from the Korean War.
Imposed strong sanctions on Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro and his inner circle.
Executive order preventing those in the U.S. from carrying out certain transactions with the Venezuelan regime, including prohibiting the purchase of the regime’s debt.
Responded to the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime.
--Rolled out sanctions targeting individuals and entities tied to Syria’s chemical weapons program. --Directed strikes in April 2017 against a Syrian airfield used in a chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians. --Joined allies in launching airstrikes in April 2018 against targets associated with Syria’s chemical weapons use.
New Cuba policy that enhanced compliance with U.S. law and held the Cuban regime accountable for political oppression and human rights abuses.
--Treasury and State are working to channel economic activity away from the Cuban regime, particularly the military.
Changed the rules of engagement, empowering commanders to take the fight to ISIS.
--ISIS has lost virtually all of its territory, more than half of which has been lost under Trump. --ISIS’ self-proclaimed capital city, Raqqah, was liberated in October 2017. --All Iraqi territory had been liberated from ISIS.
More than a dozen American hostages have been freed from captivity all of the world.
Action to combat Russia’s malign activities, including their efforts to undermine the sanctity of United States elections.
--Expelled dozens of Russian intelligence officers from the United States and ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle, WA. --Banned the use of Kaspersky Labs software on government computers, due to the company’s ties to Russian intelligence. --Imposed sanctions against five Russian entities and three individuals for enabling Russia’s military and intelligence units to increase Russia’s offensive cyber capabilities. --Sanctions against seven Russian oligarchs, and 12 companies they own or control, who profit from Russia’s destabilizing activities. --Sanctioned 100 targets in response to Russia’s occupation of Crimea and aggression in Eastern Ukraine. --Enhanced support for Ukraine’s Armed Forces to help Ukraine better defend itself.
Helped win U.S. bid for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Helped win U.S.-Mexico-Canada’s united bid for 2026 World Cup.
Defense
Executive order keeping the detention facilities at U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay open.
$700 billion in military funding for FY 2018 and $716 billion for FY 2019.
Largest military pay raise in nearly a decade.
Ordered a Nuclear Posture Review to ensure America’s nuclear forces are up to date and serve as a credible deterrent.
Released America’s first fully articulated cyber strategy in 15 years.
New strategy on national biodefense, which better prepares the nation to defend against biological threats.
Administration has announced that it will use whatever means necessary to protect American citizens and servicemen from unjust prosecution by the International Criminal Court.
Released an America first National Security Strategy.
Put in motion the launch of a Space Force as a new branch of the military and relaunched the National Space Council.
Encouraged North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies to increase defense spending to their agree-upon levels.
--In 2017 alone, there was an increase of more than 4.8 percent in defense spending amongst NATO allies. --Every member state has increased defense spending. --Eight NATO allies will reach the 2 percent benchmark by the end of 2018 and 15 allies are on trade to do so by 2024. --NATO allies spent over $42 billion dollars more on defense since 2016.
Executive order to help military spouses find employment as their families deploy domestically and abroad.
Veterans affairs
Signed the VA Accountability Act and expanded VA telehealth services, walk-in-clinics, and same-day urgent primary and mental health care.
--Delivered more appeals decisions – 81,000 – to veterans in a single year than ever before.
Strengthened protections for individuals who come forward and identify programs occurring within the VA.
Signed legislation that provided $86.5 billion in funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the largest dollar amount in history for the VA.
VA MISSION Act, enacting sweeping reform to the VA system that:
--Consolidated and strengthened VA community care programs. --Funding for the Veterans Choice program. --Expanded eligibility for the Family Caregivers Program. --Gave veterans more access to walk-in care. --Strengthened the VA’s ability to recruit and retain quality healthcare professionals. --Enabled the VA to modernize its assets and infrastructure.
Signed the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act in 2017, which authorized $2.1 billion in addition funds for the Veterans Choice Program.
Worked to shift veterans’ electronic medical records to the same system used by the Department of Defense, a decades old priority.
Issued an executive order requiring the Secretaries of Defense, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs to submit a joint plan to provide veterans access to access to mental health treatment as they transition to civilian life.
Increased transparency and accountability at the VA by launching an online “Access and Quality Tool,” providing veterans with access to wait time and quality of care data.
Signed legislation to modernize the claims and appeal process at the VA.
Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act, providing enhanced educational benefits to veterans, service members, and their family members.
--Lifted a 15-year limit on veterans’ access to their educational benefits.
Created a White House VA Hotline to help veterans and principally staffed it with veterans and direct family members of veterans.
VA employees are being held accountable for poor performance, with more than 4,000 VA employees removed, demoted, and suspended so far.
Signed the Veterans Treatment Court Improvement Act, increasing the number of VA employees that can assist justice-involved veterans.
Hot topics in Will County District 7 race include opioids and taxes
Steve Balich (from left), Kyle Killacky and Mike Fricilone. (Steve Balich/Kyle Killacky/Mike Fricilone)
Susan DeMar LaffertyDaily Southtown
Battling the opioid epidemic, high taxes, and spending are at the forefront of Will County’s District 7 board race, where a 23-year-old student, Kyle Killacky, is challenging the two Republican incumbents, Steve Balich and Mike Fricilone in the Nov. 6 election.
District 7, which includes most of Homer Township, parts of Lockport Township and one precinct in New Lenox Township, has two open seats for four-year terms.
Killacky, a Homer Glen Democrat, said he would bring a youthful perspective to the board and “fresh, new, and exciting ideas” that are “very vital in leading the county into the future.”
Balich and Fricilone have both served on the county board since 2012, and said they are seeking re-election to keep property taxes down.
Killacky’s biggest priority is the opioid crisis which is “getting worse,” he said.
The county needs to invest more in its health department to address the issue, he said. “Our health department is underfunded at a time when we have a health epidemic raging in the county. It was insane to think that in 2016 there were people on the board who wanted to defund the health department.”
Killacky also wants to make sure the sheriff's department has enough resources to continue its efforts in fighting this problem.
Balich, of Orland Park, said the heroin problem can be addressed with education and “creating a positive environment where addicts can get a good job.”
Putting people in jail is “very costly” and the county is trying to find innovative ways to reduce the jail population, he said.
Fricilone, of Homer Glen, said “the earlier children are educated on the dangers of drug use the better prepared they will be to fight this battle.”
The county has received state and federal grant funding to help fight this epidemic and will continue to seek those grants, he said.
Fricilone, who chairs the board’s Finance Committee, said the board has increased funding for the Health Department, provided more drug awareness programs, built a new Public Safety Complex, started to build a new county courthouse while reducing the county’s tax rate for the past three years.
He said he wants to continue to reduce the tax burden, provide oversight on spending, and make sure taxpayers are “getting the best services.” This can be done through “efficient government and wise spending,” he said.
Balich said he will “continue to spend taxpayer money like it was my own.”
”Seniors and others on a fixed income see so much of their disposable income taken away by excessive taxes, they are forced to move or struggle to make ends meet,” he said.
Killacky said as the county grows, more jobs are needed but not necessarily more warehouse jobs.
He said he will work to bring jobs that “treat workers like human beings” and “pay a living wage.” To attract such jobs, the county must continue to “invest in its infrastructure.” While the county is doing a “good job,” he said he will do “more to fix our crumbling roads.”
Fricilone, a businessman and chairman of the Lockport Township High School Foundation, also wants to increase economic development and jobs, improve local roads and cut wasteful spending, according to his website, www.mikefricilone.tumblr.com. During his tenure on the county board, he has not supported pay raises for elected officials and voted to eliminate pensions for county board members.
Balich previously served as Homer Township trustee and clerk, and is co-founder of the Will County Tea Party Alliance. He is concerned about expanding government and wants to eliminate laws and regulations that are “not enforced, make little sense, or just a way for government to make money.” For example, he has pushed to exempt routine repair and maintenance work from requiring a building permit.
”We need to support our police who must deal with media driven disdain for police.I will stand for issues that benefit people,” Balich said.
Killacky said he wants a Will County that works for everyone, regardless of political party, religion, race, or gender.
“A county board member should represent everyone,” he said. “I believe that everyone my age should contribute to their community in some way.”
Big end-of-career spikes can
significantly boost the annual pension payments an educator gets in retirement
and the total amount the taxpayer-supported pension system has to pay out over
the term of the benefit.
A
decades-long practice of jacking up salaries in Illinois' public education
arena has been checked by state lawmakers for the second time in 13 years, but
decreasing the threshold of allowable pension bumps may not end the costly
practice that hits taxpayers across the state.
The new
Illinois state budget addresses pension spiking, when state employees salaries
are increased significantly in the final few years of their career, leading to
an increase in their annual pension payouts upon retirement.
The
enacted budget for fiscal 2019 requires pension funds like the Teachers Retirement
System to bill a local employer, such as a local school district, if they spike
someone’s salary over 3 percent a year. That is down from a penalty on any bump
over 6 percent, where the law was before July 1 this year.
“Three
percent is obviously fairly close to inflation, plus considering when somebody
is going to make a job change as they go along, it makes perfect sense,” state
Rep. Mark Batinick said.
The
updated plan capping spiking at three percent is estimated to save $21 million
annually, “which really isn’t a lot of money when you’re talking about
splitting that over 2 million school children in this state. And that’s between
all the [state pension] systems, that’s not just [the Teacher Retirement
System]," Batinick said.
“The
way our system is set up ... has incentivized the people to do some nefarious
things,” he said.
When
spiking happens, Batinick, R-Plainfield, said “the pension is based on that
much higher amount and there hasn't been enough contributed along the way to
the make up for that.”
An
Illinois News Network investigation found school districts all over the state
having to pay millions of dollars in pension spiking penalties from when the
law had a six percent cap. Some examples from the investigation were “egregious
(and) extremely costly for taxpayers,” Batinick said.
Pension
spiking has been happening for years.
“The
career service raises have been a decades-long practice,” said state Sen. Elgie
Sims, noting the six percent limit was implemented back in 2005.
“What
the career service raises have done,” said Sims, D-Chicago, “they’ve
incentivized educators to take lower salaries to back-fill their raises on the
backend.”
But
Batinick doesn’t think the new change lowering it from six percent to three
percent in the current budget will do much.
“There’s
still end-of-career massive spiking that’s going on that’s stressing the
pension systems and people are just writing checks,” Batinick said of the
previous six-percent cap. “So obviously where the abuse is is from the six
percent and well beyond that. My guess is that if it was set to zero, we’d
still have problems."
Spiking
takes taxpayer money away from other services.
“It's
going to take away supplies, to hire other people,” Batinick said. “When police
and fire spiking happens, then it’s going to take police off the streets and so
forth. It’s money that’s taken out of society essentially.”
“That
kind of thing is going on around the state,” Taxpayer Education Foundation
President Jim Tobin said.
Tobin
cited the Chicago suburb of Harvey where more than 40 police and fire personnel
were laid off because money from the state meant for the city was diverted into
pension funds.
The
Taxpayer Education Foundation recently published a report showing 19,000 state
government retirees make more than $100,000 in pensions a year, up 15 percent
from last year. More than 100,000 retirees get $50,000 a year. The report
estimates next year that more than 21,000 state government employees will have
$100,000 annual pensions.
“Pension
benefits double every 24 years,” Tobin said, giving blame to the three percent
guaranteed annual raise in pensions for Tier I employees.
One
example Tobin noted is a teacher he said retired at the age of 57.
“His
annual pension is $321,000 this year. He’s already received $3 million. He’s a
pension millionaire,” Tobin said. “If he lives until he’s 85, he’ll get over $9
million from Illinois” taxpayers.
Tobin
said spiking should be criminal.
“The
spiking thing needs to end, not be capped. It needs to be terminated and that
is the solution,” Tobin said.
Sims
advocated for paying teachers a minimum salary of $40,000 by 2022, a bill that
sits on the governor’s desk.
“Why
don’t we pay them an adequate wage throughout their service so we’re not
worried about that,” Sims said. “Let’s pay our educators a salary that they
deserve throughout their service and I think you’ll see a drop in the
penalties.”
Tobin
responded.
“If
they’d get rid of these stupid pensions, I’d be in support of higher salaries
for government people,” Tobin said. “I think they should get paid what they’re
worth in the sector now, but these pensions are out of whack and out of
control.”
Batinick
urged people to pay attention to local elections and get out and vote.
“We
have all these units of government, if we’re going to keep them it’s our
responsibility to make sure they run properly,” Batinick said. “We have
something like 10 to 20 percent turnout in local races. They make a lot of
decisions and spend a lot of your money.”
