donald trump

― Op-ed by D. Kenton Henry

And not your potty breaks, either, “Snowflake”. (To plagiarize the apt and insightful adjective Clint Eastwood ascribes to the thumb-sucking generation of politically correct automatons.) What’s at stake for America in our November presidential election is a whole lot more important than social faux-issues the left (which includes Hillary) have contrived to distract the electorate from the real issues. Issues which will determine the long-term welfare of our great country. These have nothing to do with matters such as what attire you wear into the bathroom. Or the threat, “Republicans are going to take away your marriage certificate.” The first has never been a concern of the right. We don’t care if men want to dress like their mother or women like their dad. Our concern was that the proposed law (you know the one I’m referring to) was only going to make it easier for a pedophile or sexual predator to have easier access to his more vulnerable prey. Consider this: A big burly male lumberjack with a fetish for children walks into a woman’s bathroom full of little girl’s at the local YMCA. As a woman, you confront him and he says he “identifies as a female”. How are you going to prove he doesn’t and convince him to leave without discriminating against him? And now, since you’re the only one in there with him, he decides that “variety is the spice of life” and hauls you into a stall and has a go at you. Yes, there are all kinds of stupid to go around.

And no one is going to take away someone’s already issued marriage license or try to change a law allowing same-sex marriage in a state which has ratified that right. Get over yourself. In the scheme of things, you’re not that important. The United States Constitution makes it pretty clear we are all entitled to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. That pretty well covers it. There are no exclusions or qualifications. The only objection for most of the right, and those even more familiar with the Constitution is that per the 10th Amendment, it was always a state’s right issue. In brief, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” That pretty well covers it, also. Specifically, the powers entrusted to the Federal government, known as the enumerated powers, listed in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution include making treaties, regulating interstate and international commerce, maintaining a postal system and coining money. We all know how good the feds are at managing these things but . . . I digress. All other matters were left to the sovereign states, their people, and their Congress. Then the Supreme Court, in the tank with the WH and, as they did with Obamacare, pulled a rabbit out of a hat, over-reached their authority (in the opinion of this author) and took the matter out of the hands of the states and obliged the states to license same-sex marriage. This should have come as no surprise as we’ve always known this administration has no respect for the Constitution (and obviously has some dirt on some members of the Supreme Court). However, in the end, and, as I initially implied, no one really gives a damn about your love life.

The real issues that should determine who is elected to lead our country forward are:

1) A failing economy: The federal debt stands at 19.5 trillion dollars. With a bullet. http://www.usdebtclock.org/ This would not be as insurmountable a problem as it appears except that the Real Unemployment Rate is 9.8% and the Labor Participation Rate is almost lower than it’s been in 39 years. Our national economy (GDP) grew a pathetic 1.2 percent last quarter―an embarrassment to the Obama administration and preview of only more to come with a Hillary administration. She will double down on Obama’s failed economic policies in her attempt to fulfill pie-in-the-sky promises she made to potential voters in an attempt to buy them away from admitted socialist, Bernie “Sell-Out” Sanders. With this low a GDP, the debt will only accrue. And if Hillary gets elected and tries to spend our way out of this economic pit, even more so. Heaven forbid the Fed’s artificial suppression of interest rates, in an attempt to prop up the stock market and make Obama look good, ceases. If that ever happens ― we couldn’t pay off the National debt until the sun cools, contracts, implodes and wipes the books clean. Until then, our credit won’t be good anywhere in the Universe.

2) Terrorism entwined with immigration: Specifically, “Islamic Terrorism”. It’s occurring everywhere the world over. It’s done in the name of religion and, whether a perversion of Islam or not, it’s not Buddhists , Hindus, Jews, Christians, pagans or atheists that are perpetuating it in mass. It’s Muslims. No, not all. But based on approximately 1.6 billion Muslims in the world―if only 3% are intent on executing Jihad and establishing a caliphate calling for the elimination of infidels (yes, that’s you and me, Snowflake)―that leaves 48,000,000 we have to worry about. ISIS has been instructed by their Mullahs to blend in with the refugees and infiltrate Western society. They have been instructed to take over our communities, become the voting majority, replace English Common Law with their barbaric Sharia Law and―when the time is right―rise up and kill us. And Hillary Clinton wants to increase the number of Syrian refugees we take in, house, feed and, otherwise subsidize at our expense by 500%! Is there anything she won’t do for more votes? To the point she will import our own assassins?

To clarify the balance of power as dictated by the Constitution as it relates to immigration: While due process is to be applied to non-citizens present in our country, matters of immigration and national security are the authority of Congress. Not the Executive branch. Individuals not yet in our country are not entitled to any rights conferred by our Constitution to our citizens, But if Hillary gets elected and overrides the Constitution with executive orders the way Obama has ― Welcome Wagon may be greeting ISIS in your neighborhood with discounts on fertilizer at a lawn and garden store near you.

3) Obamacare: The future of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is at stake. We were lied to in order to support it ― “If you like your plan, you can keep it.” “If you like your doctor you can keep him.” It had to be passed in the middle of the night “before we can know what’s in it”. All lies. I’m not only a consumer, I’m a health insurance broker specializing in individual and family coverage and have for 30 years. I deal first hand each day with all the falsehoods regarding Obamacare we were led to believe.

We were also promised our premiums would go down. Instead, they have increased at a rate that, in many cases, is greater than before the passage of the Act in March of 2010. The reality is unless you receive a subsidy for a significant portion of your premium, you are in shock over your cost for health insurance. In other words, if your fellow taxpayers chip in and cover your bill you might find this to be a pretty good deal. (Never mind that pesky deficit.) The only time premiums have diminished somewhat is this past January, at least in my home state of Texas, when I and approximately 150 of my clients were forced off our PPO and into HMO coverage. Now we find we not only could not keep our plans but we have lost access to our doctors and hospitals. With the rationing of our providers comes the rationing of our treatment. But not to worry about that hip replacement. In the words of Obama, “There must be a pill for that.”

This fall, just before November’s election, people are going to be getting wind of compromises in and premium increases for their 2017 health insurance. Just before they head to the polls to vote for our next president. I don’t have to be prescient like the “Great Karnack” or Nostradamus to know that come November 8th they are going to be an angry lot and―barring a significant domestic terrorist event coinciding with the election―it’s going to, along with the economy in general―be a pre-eminent issue on their mind.

I don’t know what Donald Trump’s plan is for Obamacare. Other than he says he’s going to repeal it. But I do know that Hillary Clinton plans to double down on it, replacing it with a single-payer system. Why? So we can all have health care like our veterans enjoy? Or so that she can co-mingle health care for everyone with Medicare and deplete funds to which Medicare recipients have contributed to their entire working careers for the purpose of quality health care late in life? For the benefit of people, many of whom have never contributed a dime to our economy or their own welfare?

And you wonder why there is this watershed rejection of Washington and the status quo. Bear in mind when you go to the polls in November that one candidate represents a perpetuation of those things. In spades. And the other represents, at least, the possibility for meaningful and substantive change. Change upon which the survival of this country is predicated.

The title of this post, “It’s The Economy . . .”, is a spin- off of the mantra of James Carville’s successful campaign on behalf of democrat Bill Clinton to upseat George H. Bush in the ’92 presidential election. That campaign was based on three things: