Insights, Issues & Istook

Guess who's lying about their finances—it's the IRS.   The Internal Revenue Service told Congress millions of taxpayer inquiries are ignored because Congress doesn't give the IRS enough money to function. The IRS deliberately makes taxpayers its lowest priority.   Congress gave the agency the same money this year as last year. But the IRS diverted $134-million away from customer service, reducing its customer service budget by 76 percent.   Instead, the IRS commissioner gave out more bonuses to workers. He allowed them to spend 500,000 hours doing labor union business instead of IRS business. And the IRS spent over $1.2-billion to implement Obamacare rather than answering phone calls and other requests from taxpayers.   It's not that the bureaucrats don't have enough money to do their jobs. It's just that they choose other priorities instead of taking care of the little people—to them, that's what the taxpayers are.    

President Obama claims there's an agreement to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons.   To reach a deal, Obama already: ,  Restored $13-billion in assets to Iran, and  Evidently agrees to end all trade sanctions on Iran up front, supposedly because they will allow inspections of their nuclear program. I quote Obama:    Now I quote the #2 man in Iran's army:     That sounds like zero agreement exists.   Some people have imaginary friends. President Obama seems to have an imaginary agreement.  

Is there something wrong with being a taxpayer? A left-wing writer wants to ban the word “taxpayer.” She claims the term benefits conservatives and threatens equality under law, by implying that those who pay for government deserve better treatment than those who do not.  Remember that half of America's adults pay zero federal income tax. The word taxpayer is a threat to the system of getting elected by giving government benefits to a majority, sending the tax bills to the smaller group that got outvoted, then borrowing the rest and never worrying about who will pay it back. Words matter in politics. Political correctness confuses us, making things deliberately unclear. Illegal immigrant means more than an undocumented person. Amnesty is more than prosecutorial discretion.  The term taxpayer is valuable because it says than somebody has accepted responsibility. If we give up on that word, we're saying that being responsible is no longer important. Listen below.

The White House is claiming that Iran is no longer a threat to world peace.   For decades, Iran has been a rogue nation, sponsoring global terrorism and devoted to destroying Israel.   President Obama wants us to believe Iran can now be trusted. He's ready to let Iran keep the capability to make weapons-grade uranium within 2 to 3 months. Obama would remove sanctions from Iran, and he's already freed up billions of dollars for them.   Iran has been officially listed as state sponsors of terrorism for 30 years, but Obama is taking them off the list.   Obama-appointees tell Congress that Iran can be trusted to honor a deal because . . . otherwise they would be breaking the law. How naïve.   Obama thinks that appeasement will bring world peace. He wants a special place in world history. Obama just might succeed, going down as a modern-day Neville Chamberlain.

Net neutrality is a phony term meaning government control. Big government wants to run everything. With President Obama pulling the strings, the Federal Communications Commission is issuing rules and regulations to take over the Internet. In the name of fairness, the ability to buy faster access will end. It's like re-distribution of wealth; every user must be treated equally. That means equally slow Internet speeds. A huge bandwidth user like Netflix needs fast speed and providers need Netflix' business. So they negotiate a price. But now government will dictate prices instead. It will be like the era when government set the passenger fares for all airlines. There was no competition to provide lower airfares, so most flyers were rich people. Only the end of regulation made air travel common among all Americans. Regulating the Internet is not about consumers. It's not neutrality; it's about government control. We should call it 'net nonsense.' Find more insights online at 

President Obama says he will push his agenda harder than ever.   Saying he will “squeeze every last little bit of change” into his final two years in office, Obama bragged to fellow Democrats that his actions will set the course for America for the next ten years.    Obama says his opponents are cynics—that he represents hope and they represent fear.   But the hope for millions is that Obama is wrong about that, and won't actually trap our future for the next ten years.   Listen below for more. It takes but a single minute:

ISIS has recruited and trained Americans to be terrorists—even to launch attacks within the USA. Despite the ridicule heaped upon those reports by our national media, the FBI confirms it is a fact. The FBI just testified to Congress to describe this threat. Over 3,000 ISIS fighters are from Western nations, including the USA. And we are not tracking them as they fly back here to America. This is a real danger. And it's scary. It would have helped if the media had helped spread the warning instead of ridiculing the very idea. But they didn't think it politically correct to criticize Muslim fanatics.  

We have over 4-million federal employees and they're being asked to pitch their friends and family to enroll in Obamacare. Even solders have received official flyers to hand out and postcards to mail. The White House hopes this will add millions of people to those who depend on government--and taxpayer money--to provide their healthcare. Curiously, the federal workers are also being reassured that they are safe, because they are exempt from Obamacare, yet they're supposed to encourage you to sign up. We already spend almost $700-million a year to promote Obamacare, and now millions of workers are asked to spend their time promoting it also.    

What's next?   A hotline for tax cheats to complain about enforcing tax laws? One for pushers to complain about obeying drug laws?    is more than catering to those who break immigration law.   Obama is pressuring federal agents to abandon their sworn duty and to obey Presidential amnesty decrees in place of enforcing the law.   His goal: That everyone is loyal to Obama and not to the Constitution.

Honesty is supposed to be the best policy—but it's a lost policy today. NBC anchorman Brian Williams is off the air because he told fibs once too often, but he's notour only dishonest public figure. Bernie Madoff stole billions. President Obama's health care lies were treated by media as nothing significant. Temperature readings are revised to support global warming theories. And government reports are designed to deceive. When might it stop? Only when the public rejects the lies and those who tell them.

The Gallup poll's CEO just accused politicians and the media of lying. Jim Clifton, Gallup's CEO for over 25 years, writes that politicians and news media are lying when they claim America's unemployment is only 5.6%. Among other problems, government statistics consider someone is employed if they work as little as one hour a week. And when frustrated job-seekers quit looking for work, it's treated as improving the unemployment rate. It's another example of how government reports are designed to mislead us rather than inform us. We're being manipulated. Listen for more: 

We have too few things that Americans enjoy together. The Super Bowl is a too-rare occasion that unites us. On other days, we are overwhelmed by divisions. Conservatives oppose liberals; even moderates get accused of not having enough principles. Racial divisions have gotten worse. Income inequality is a hot topic. But when football fans take sides between the Seahawks and the Patriots, it's not a blood rivalry. The smack talk is in the spirit of competition, based on love of the game. Other nations go wild over soccer, which is great. But when our country focuses on the Super Bowl, for once it unites us all and makes us feel very American. We simply don't get enough of that.

Al Gore has a $90-trillion dream. He's involved with the , which wants every city in the world to be re-designed in a way that eliminates automobiles. Substitute public transit for roads. And move everybody into boxes in the cities so they (supposedly) won't need cars. The idea is actually being discussed at the world economic summit in Davos, Switzerland. Starting over is a $90-trillion expense. Minimum. But to meet that cost they would have to cram us all together like livestock, at the cost of our freedoms. Al Gore won't be happy until everybody else has to ride horses instead of cars. Except he'll want to keep his big limo.    

President Obama promised that Obamacare “won't add a dime to the deficit?” It's not a dime; it's over a trillion dollars for just the first 10 years, reports the Congressional Budget Office. The costs will be double what Obama claimed. After offsetting the revenue from Obamacare taxes, it still leaves a deficit of $1.3-trillion purely due to Obamacare. So who could trust the things that Obama says today?    

Talking about immigration and assimilation, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said that before being allowed into the USA, people should be told, “You can’t come here if you want to overthrow our culture.” He's right that the law of the land must govern, and you cannot bring in Sharia law to replace it.  

Regulators say window blind cords strangle 11 children each year (1/10th of 1 percent of accidental child deaths), so a new regulation would require cordless window blinds. Bureacrats admit higher prices would result: It comes out to an extra $1-billion a year on sales of 150 units of blinds.

Are your principles for sale? If you would surrender your honesty, your virtue, or your morality if somebody wrote you a big enough check, then those are not your true values. President Obama is trying to outbid your conscience. He hopes to persuade middle-class Americans to support big government by offering them freebies. Obama believes those who oppose big government are willing to sell out if he just gives them a piece of the giveaway action.

New reports scream that 2014 was Earth's hottest year ever. The goal is to scare us into down-scaling our way of life and approving billions in giveaways to green energy. But I tell you there's been no global warming for 18 years. Here's the secret that reveals why you hear such opposite claims. LISTEN BELOW:  

Many Democrats believe government exists to take from some and give to others. Their brand new plan says government should give money to every household that makes less than $200,000 a year. Basically, that's 99% of Americans.  A tax on sales of stock and other Wall Street transactions supposedly would pay for it. This is saying that 99% of people will gang up and take money from the outnumbered 1%, with government as the enforcer.